A personal EKG like the SonoHealth EKGraph screens heart rhythm and is not a diagnosis. Bring recordings to your doctor, and seek emergency care for chest pain, fainting, or severe breathlessness.
Set up for a clean signal
- Sit still and relaxed. Movement and muscle tension are the biggest causes of a noisy trace. Rest your arms on a table or your lap.
- Be comfortable, not cold. Shivering adds interference; warm up first if needed.
- Ensure good skin contact. Dry or lotioned skin weakens the signal — clean, slightly moist fingertips help.
- Stay quiet. Don’t talk during the recording.
Follow the device’s grip
Most single-lead devices require contact with both hands (and sometimes another body location) to complete the circuit. Hold the device as instructed with steady, even contact for the full recording — usually around 30 seconds — without gripping too hard.Record at the right moment
The most valuable recording is one taken while you feel symptoms, such as a palpitation or flutter. Keep the device handy so you can capture an episode in the moment — this is what makes a personal EKG more useful than a routine office visit for intermittent symptoms.Why is my trace noisy or wavy?
Common culprits are movement, talking, cold hands, poor skin contact, or being near electrical interference. Re-record sitting still with good contact. If readings are consistently unreadable, check the device setup before assuming a hardware problem.Make it useful for your doctor
Save or export each recording and note what you were doing and feeling at the time. A trace plus context — “fluttering after coffee, lasted two minutes” — helps your doctor far more than a number alone. Compare a single-lead trace’s limits in our single-lead vs 12-lead guide.Related: Home EKG Overview · Heart Palpitations · Single-Lead vs 12-Lead · When to See a Doctor