A test that records the electrical beat of the heart as a line on paper or a screen. Doctors use it to see if the heart is racing, skipping, or damaged after chest pain or before an operation. EKG is the American short form. It comes from German Elektrokardiogramm, which spells the heart part with K, so the letters are E-K-G. In British English the same test is an ECG, from electrocardiogram with a C. They are not two machines. Though actually, in Taiwan a patient almost always says the Chinese name, and hospital notes often write ECG; EKG sounds a bit American and textbook-medical if you say the letters aloud. You may also hear EKG used for the tracing itself, the printout, not only the act of doing the test.