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Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staff
Electrocardiogram
An electrocardiogram (ECG) is the most commonly used test for bundle branch block. This noninvasive test is an electrical recording of your heart's activity. In this test, a technician places probes on the skin of your chest that will show the patterns of electric impulses through your heart as wave patterns. Abnormalities in the waves may indicate the presence of bundle branch block. These electrical patterns can also point to whether the block is affecting the right or the left bundle branch.
It's also possible your doctor will discover you have a bundle branch block incidentally — meaning the condition could be found while you're having an ECG to diagnose another heart condition.
Echocardiogram
Once you have been diagnosed with bundle branch block, your doctor may order other tests, such an echocardiogram. An echocardiogram uses sound waves to produce images of the heart. An echocardiogram allows the doctor to see the complicated movement of the heart in motion. An echocardiogram provides detailed images of the heart's structure and shows the thickness of your heart muscle, whether blood flow is obstructed and if your heart valves are moving normally.
- Bundle branch block. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/print_presenter.jhtml?identifier=990. Accessed Jan. 12, 2010.
- Bundle branch and fascicular block. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec07/ch075/ch075i.html. Accessed Jan. 10, 2010.
- Francia P, et al. Left bundle-branch block — Pathophysiology, prognosis and clinical management. Clinical Cardiology. 2007;30:110.
- ACC/AHA 2008 guidelines for device-based therapy of cardiac rhythm abnormalities: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the ACC/AHA/NASPE 2002 Guideline Update for Implantation of Cardiac Pacemakers and Antiarrhythmia Devices) developed in collaboration with the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2008;51:e1.
- Goldberger AL, et al. Electrocardiography. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2871872. Accessed Jan. 10, 2010.
- Horton CL, et al. Right bundle-branch block in acute coronary syndrome: Diagnostic and therapeutic implications for the emergency physician. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2009;27:1130.
- Wong CK, et al. Prognostic differences between different types of bundle branch block during the early phase of acute myocardial infarction: Insights from the Hirulog and Early Reperfusion or Occlusion (HERO)-2 trial. European Heart Journal. 2006;27:21.
- ABC's of preventing heart disease, stroke and heart attack. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/print_presenter.jhtml?identifier=3035374. Accessed Jan. 12, 2010.
- Grogan M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 25, 2010.
- Arnsdorf MF. Overview of left bundle branch block. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 13, 2010.
- Arnsdorf MF. Overview of right bundle branch block. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 13, 2010.
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