Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

MARCH 22, 2024

I will leave more detailed rhythm discussion to the illustrious Dr. Ken Grauer below, but this use of calipers shows that the rhythm interpretation is: Sinus bradycardia with a competing (most likely junctional) rhythm. The fact that R waves 2 through 6 are junctional does make ischemia more difficult to interpret -- but not impossible.

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Chest Pain STEMI Bradycardia Ischemia 111

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Altered Mental Status, Bradycardia == MY Comment , by K EN G RAUER, MD ( 2/2 /2024 ): == Dr. Meyers began today’s case with the clinical challenge of asking you to identify the underlying cause of ECG #2. -- Read this ECG -- Osborn Waves and Hypothermia (this is the "Figure" above) What does LBBB look like in severe hypothermia?

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Cardiac Arrest Blog Atrial Fibrillation Bradycardia 132

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

OCTOBER 20, 2024

The first task when assessing a wide complex QRS for ischemia is to identify the end of the QRS. The ST segment changes are compatible with severe subendocardial ischemia which can be caused by type I MI from ACS or potentially from type II MI (non-obstructive coronary artery disease with supply/demand mismatch). What do you think?

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Cardiogenic Shock Ischemia Chest Pain Cardiac Arrest 125

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

AUGUST 9, 2024

There are three mechanisms of arrhythmia: automatic, re-entry, and triggered. The most common triggered arrhythmia is Torsades de Pointes. It is a benign arrhythmia which requires no specific treatment. Possible mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias elicited by ischemia followed by reperfusion. Do not treat AIVR.

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Chest Pain Arrhythmia Myocardial Infarction STEMI 84

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

The ECG shows sinus tachycardia with RBBB and LAFB, without clear additional superimposed signs of ischemia. Other Arrhythmias ( PACs, PVCs, AFib, Bradycardia and AV conduction disorders — potentially lethal VT/VFib ). Chest trauma was suspected on initial exam. Here is his initial ECG around 1330: What do you think?

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Tachycardia Dysrhythmia Atrial Fibrillation Bradycardia 107

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2023

A prior ECG was available for comparison: Normal One might be tempted to interpret the ST depression as ischemia, but as Smith says, "when the QT is impossibly long, think of hypokalemia and a U-wave rather than T-wave." QUESTION #2: If it were not for the markedly prolonged QTc — Wouldn't ECG #1 look like diffuse subendocardial ischemia?

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Ischemia Chest Pain Cardiac Arrest Blog 112

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JANUARY 21, 2023

This ECG shows a sinus bradycardia with a normal conduction pattern (normal PR, normal QRS, and normal QTc), normal axis, normal R-wave progression, normal voltages. Hypothermia can also produce bradycardia and J waves, with a pseudo-STEMI pattern. ECG met STEMI criteria and was labeled STEMI by computer interpretation.

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STEMI Bradycardia Arrhythmia Cardiac Arrest 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2023

Remember, in diffuse subendocardial ischemia with widespread ST-depression there may b e ST-E in lead s aVR and V1. There are well formed R-waves with good voltage/amplitude which is uncommon for ischemia. The ECG does not show any signs of ischemia. True Positive ECG#2 : Also sinus rhythm. There is ST depression in V1.

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Ischemia Chest Pain Cardiogenic Shock Cardiac Arrest 109

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Osborn waves have been reported with hypercalcemia, brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, Brugada syndrome, cardiac arrest from VFib — and — severe, acute ischemia resulting in acute MI ( See My Comment in the November 22, 2019 post on Dr. Smith’s Blog ). Rituparna et al — as well as Chauhan and Brahma ( Int.

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Cardiac Arrest Bradycardia Chest Pain Ischemia 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

MARCH 15, 2023

Baseline bradycardia in endurance athletes limits the use of ß-blockers. These include: i ) Use of rate-slowing medication ( ie, ß-blockers, digoxin, verapamil/diltiazem, etc. ) ; ii ) Acute or recent infarction or ischemia; iii ) Hypothyroidism; iv ) Neurologic injury; v ) Electrolyte disturbance; and , vi ) Sleep apnea. 25, 2022 ).

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Atrial Fibrillation AFIB Arrhythmia Exercise 52

Ken Grauer, MD

OCTOBER 27, 2023

That said — obvious findings include: i ) Marked bradycardia! — This suggests ischemia of uncertain duration. L addergram I llustration : At this point — I needed to work out, and then draw a laddergram that I could then verify to ensure a plausible mechanism for today's arrhythmia. be regular! —

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Blog Pacemaker Bradycardia Arrhythmia 103

Wellnest

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Arrhythmia In simple words, arrhythmia refers to an irregular heartbeat. A fast heartbeat is called tachycardia, while a slow heartbeat is called bradycardia in medical terms. Poor blood supply Ischemia, or inadequate blood supply to the heart, is an abnormality that can be detected in an ECG test.

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Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JULY 16, 2022

If you put the inferior and posterior findings together, it is diagnostic of OMI This was read as "inferior ischemia" without any other information by Dr. Richard Gray and as probable reperfused inferior-posterior OMI much later by both me and Pendell Meyers, also without any clinical information.

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Chest Pain Bradycardia Blog Critical Care 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

He has a family history concerning for arrhythmia. Given the circumstances of his car crash, we presume it was due to an underlying arrhythmia. He has a family history concerning for arrhythmia with his father requiring some sort of device (PPM, ICD, unclear) at a young age.

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Arrhythmia Blog Chest Pain Cardiac Arrest 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JANUARY 23, 2024

Extensive conduction system abnormalities can have various causes (ischemia, genetic, infectious, amyloid, etc). VT is the second most common presenting arrhythmia. Vaso or inotropic medications are not harmless, and can precipitate life threatening arrhythmias. Usually the medical history will provide clues to the cause.

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Tachycardia Arrhythmia Heart Disease Sudden Cardiac Death 84

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JULY 5, 2023

Here was my answer: "Not ischemia. Instead — my thoughts were as follows: The rhythm is sinus , with marked bradycardia and a component of sinus arrhythmia. WPW Cardiac arrhythmias ( especially AFib ). This was texted to me in real time. The patient has acute chest pain. What do you think? I would not activate cath lab.

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Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

2] Conduction through the accessory pathway can be intermittent (with different degrees of pre-excitation), and affected by ischemia. 3] So a patient with WPW can have the pattern induced by ischemia, and there is also a report of a patient with pre-existing WPW which was “ablated” by myocardial infarction after an LAD occlusion.[4]

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Chest Pain Myocardial Infarction Ischemia STEMI 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

MAY 6, 2019

Followup ECG: No Change Absence of evolution is the best evidence against ischemia as the etiology. I was taught that the tell-tale sign of ischemia vs an electrical abnormality was in the hx, i.e. chest pain for the ischemia and potential syncope for brugada. Ischemia/infarction. Bradycardia. Hypothermia.

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Chest Pain STEMI Ischemia Myocardial Infarction 52

EMS 12-Lead

JUNE 1, 2022

Such findings would normally suggest primary ischemia with concomitant surveillance of coronary occlusion, but these ST/T changes might very well be secondary to the Escape mechanism at hand. Chapter 17: Ventricular Arrhythmias. 2] Although the clinical context in today’s case does not fit these descriptors for Type I OMI (e.g.

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Heart Failure Myocardial Infarction Bradycardia Chest Pain 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

OCTOBER 15, 2024

Additionally, his cardiac telemetry monitor showed runs of accelerated idioventricular rhythm, a benign arrhythmia often associated with coronary reperfusion. Whether these EKGs show myocarditis, a normal variant, or something else, they are overall not typical of transmural ischemia of the anterior or high lateral walls.

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Chest Pain STEMI Echocardiogram Stent 106

Ken Grauer, MD

OCTOBER 4, 2024

To improve visualization — I've digitized the original ECG using PMcardio ) MY Thoughts on the ECG in Figure-1: This is a challenging tracing to interpret — because there is marked bradycardia with an irregular rhythm and a change in QRS morphology. Was there a family history of sudden death or significant arrhythmia?

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Blog Bradycardia Arrhythmia Pacemaker 103

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

APRIL 29, 2020

Therefore, she underwent temporary pacemaker placement and overdrive pacing at a rate of 90 bpm to keep the heart rate up in order to prevent these PVCs triggering ventricular arrhythmia. Hypokalemia was unlikely because she continued to have ventricular arrhythmia despite of correcting electrolytes. Acute ischemia?

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Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JUNE 23, 2023

The patient later settled into sinus bradycardia. The above said — Dr. Smith's approach to today's arrhythmia highlights a number of important points! Just because a regular WCT is VT does not necessarily mandate immediate cardioversion — IF the patient is hemodynamically stable and tolerating the arrhythmia.

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Tachycardia Cardiomyopathy Arrhythmia Diabetes 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

JANUARY 30, 2019

Prior to Mizusawa's study, it was thought that the incidence of syncope, arrhythmia, or SCD in this cohort was low [7]. In light of the risk of arrhythmia events observed in the Mizusawa trial, a formal EP study might be reasonable to obtain in those with fever induced asymptomatic Brugada ECG changes to help risk stratify these patients.

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Heart Rhythm Sudden Cardiac Death Arrhythmia STEMI 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

MARCH 24, 2023

There’s sinus bradycardia, first degree AV block, normal axis, delayed R wave progression, and normal voltages. Hyperacute T waves are deflating, suggesting reperfusion but there is still reciprocal change in I/aVL and ST depression in V2, and the bradycardia is worse. Below is the ECG. What do you think? Take home 1.

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Chest Pain STEMI Bradycardia Ischemia 52

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

APRIL 8, 2015

Evidence of acute ischemia (may be subtle) vii. PVCs N ot generally considered abnormal ECG findings: Isolated PAC, First Degree AV Block, Sinus bradycardia at a rate of 35-45, and Nonspecific ST-T abnormalities (even if different from a previous ECG). Left BBB vi. Pathologic Q-waves viii. LVH or RV d. Abnormal but less worrisome: i.

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Arrhythmia Outcomes Risk Factors Chest Pain 52