interesting question and one that i have wondered about at times myself. the ecg is short for electrocardiogram while ekg is short for the original german (kardiogram) word describing this test that is commonly used by doctors to examine the electrical system of the heart. wikipedia has some nice background and medical history on this if you are interested in the topic. <link>
can anyone tell me why we use both abbreviations ekg and ecg for electrocardiogram?