As a medical professional with expertise in cardiology, I can explain the difference in the abbreviations for electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms. The term electrocardiogram refers to a test that records the electrical activity of the heart. The abbreviation EKG is used instead of ECG primarily for historical and phonetic reasons. When the test was first developed, the German physician who invented the electrocardiogram, Wilhelm Einthoven, used the term "Elektrokardiogramm" in German. The initial letters of these German words are E for Elektro, K for Kardio (meaning heart), and G for Gramm. Einthoven proposed the acronym EKG based on the German pronunciation of the word, which starts with a hard "K" sound, rather than the English "E" sound. The abbreviation ECG, on the other hand, might seem more logical in English since it follows the initial letters of "electrocardiogram." However, ECG is already the abbreviation for electroencephalogram, which measures the electrical activity of the brain. To avoid confusion between these two distinct medical tests, the abbreviation EKG for electrocardiogram has been retained. read more >>

People often wonder why electrocardiogram is abbreviated as EKG instead of ECG. The reason is that ECG sounds very similar to EEG, which is the abbreviation for electroencephalogram, a test that measures electrical activity in the brain.read more >>