Remove Cardiac Arrest Remove Ischemia Remove STEMI
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Resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation. Should the cath lab be activated?

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

The ECG shows severe ischemia, possibly posterior OMI. But cardiac arrest is a period of near zero flow in the coronary arteries and causes SEVERE ischemia. It takes time for that ischemia to resolve. After cardiac arrest, I ALWAYS wait 15 minutes after an ECG like this and record another.

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Cardiac arrest: even after the angiogram, the diagnosis is not always clear

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

STE limited to aVR is due to diffuse subendocardial ischemia, but what of STE in both aVR and V1? The last section is a detailed discussion of the research on aVR in both STEMI and NonSTEMI. Alternatively, it is a variant of diffuse subendocardial ischemia, with STE in V1 reciprocal to ST depression in inferior and lateral leads.

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Missed myocardial infarction with subsequent cardiac arrest

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

Such T-waves are almost always reciprocal to ischemia in the region of aVL (although aVL looks n ormal here) , and in a patient with chest pain are nearly diagnostic of ischemia. Ischemia on the ECG can be very subtle and is easily missed. Ischemia on the ECG can be very subtle and is easily missed. Lesson : 1.

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50 yo with V fib has ROSC, then these 2 successive ECGs: what is the infarct artery?

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

This certainly looks like an anterior STEMI (proximal LAD occlusion), with STE and hyperacute T-waves (HATW) in V2-V6 and I and aVL. This rules out subendocardial ischemia and is diagnostic of posterior OMI. How do you explain the anterior STEMI(+)OMI immediately after ROSC evolving into posterior OMI 30 minutes later?

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Cardiac Arrest, acute ST elevation and depression superimposed on LVH, but NOT due to ACS

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

There is profound LVH with anterolateral ST elevation and reciprocal ST depression in II, III, aVF, and ST depression in V5 and V6 that could all be secondary to LVH or could represent ischemia superimposed on the repolarization abnormalities of LVH: note that wherever there is ST depression, it is associated with a very high voltage R-wave.

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A man in his 50s with acute chest pain who is lucky to still be alive.

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

You can subscribe for news and early access (via participating in our studies) to the Queen of Hearts here: [link] queen-form This EMS ECG was transmitted to the nearby Emergency Department where it was remotely reviewed by a physician, who interpreted it as normal, or at least without any features of ischemia or STEMI.

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A man in his 30s with cardiac arrest and STE on the post-ROSC ECG

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

In terms of ischemia, there is both a signal of subendocardial ischemia (STD max in V5-V6 with reciprocal STE in aVR) AND a signal of transmural infarction of the inferior wall with Q wave and STE in lead III with reciprocal STD in I and aVL. He had multiple cardiac arrests with ROSC regained each time.