Common Arrhythmias Disclosures
Common Arrhythmias Disclosures • I work for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center. • And I am a medical editor for Jones & Bartlett Publishing. Jon Tardiff, BS, PA-C OHSU Clinical Assistant Professor What a 12-Lead ECG can help you do • Diagnose ACS / AMI • Interpret arrhythmias • Identify life-threatening syndromes (WPW, LGL, Long QT synd., Wellens synd., etc) • Infer electrolyte imbalances • Infer hypertrophy of any chamber • Infer COPD, pericarditis, drug effects, and more! Arabic, Somali, Mai Mai, Pashtu, Urdu, ASL, and more! For example… WPW with Atrial Fib 55 66 Wolff-Parkinson-WhiteWPW Graphic synd. Same pt, converted to SR Drs. Wolff, Parkinson, & White 77 Another example: Dr. William Stokes—1800s 71 y.o. man with syncope This patient is conscious and alert! Third Degree Block 9 Treatment: permanent pacemaker 10 Lots of ways to read ECGs… Limitations of a 12-Lead ECG • QRSs wide or narrow? • Is it sinus rhythm or not? • Truly useful only ~40% of the time • Regular or irregular? • If not, is it atrial fibrillation? • Each ECG is only a 10 sec. snapshot • Fast or slow? • BBB? • P waves? • MI? • Serial ECGs are necessary, especially for ACS • Other labs help corroborate ECG findings (cardiac markers, Cx X-ray) • Confounders must be ruled out (LBBB, dissecting aneurysm, pericarditis, WPW, Symptoms: digoxin, LVH, RVH) • Syncope is bradycardia, heart blocks, or VT • Rapid heart beat is AF, SVT, or VT Conduction System Lead II P wave axis …upright in L II II R T P R U Q S …upright in L II R wave axis SA Node AV Node His Bundle BBs Purkinje Fibers 14 13 Q S Normal Sinus Rhythm Triplicate Method: 6-second strip: 6 seconds 300, 150, 100, Count PQRST cycles in a 6 75, 60, 50 second strip & multiply x 10 Quick, easy, sufficient Easy, & more accurate 300 150 100 75 60 6 seconds What is the heart rate? Horizontal axis is time (mS); vertical axis is electrical energy (mV) 16 1.