A 54-year-old man presents to the emergency department by EMS with acute shortness of breath. A prehospital ECG triggers a STEMI alert based on the computer interpretation. The tracing shows…
A 68-year-old man is brought to the emergency department by EMS with acute chest discomfort. The following prehospital ECG was obtained and shows concave ST elevation across multiple leads. The…
Key Points: ECG as a Frontline Diagnostic Tool: Hyperkalemia often reveals itself on the ECG before lab confirmation. Early recognition of characteristic changes can be life-saving, especially in critically ill…
Key Points: Severe Hyperkalemia Mimics Several Life-Threatening Conditions: Severe hyperkalemia is one of the most dangerous ECG mimics in emergency medicine. It can resemble unstable bradyarrhythmias, VT, STEMI, and pacemaker…
Key Points: Severe hyperkalemia is a true ECG chameleon. It can produce ST elevation, wide QRS complexes, axis shifts, and conduction blocks that closely mimic STEMI or ventricular tachycardia. New…
A 35-year-old woman arrives at the emergency department after a witnessed seizure and brief cardiac arrest with ROSC. Her arrival ECG shows a very wide complex rhythm that the machine…
A 48-year-old woman presents two days after Thanksgiving with severe weakness, palpitations, and mild chest discomfort. Her ECG appears to show a very wide complex regular tachycardia at 119 bpm.
Key Points: Initial Assumption: Any wide (QRS >120 ms), regular tachycardia should be considered ventricular tachycardia (VT) until clearly proven otherwise. VT Characteristics: VT generally has a ventricular rate of…
A patient presents to the emergency department with new-onset palpitations. He is hemodynamically stable but noted to have an irregular rhythm on arrival. The following ECG is obtained and automatically…
Key Points BRASH is a synergistic spiral: bradycardia, renal failure, therapeutic AV-nodal blockade, shock, and hyperkalemia. The signature clue is disproportionate brady-shock despite only modest potassium elevation. Do not be…
A 52-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with weakness. The following ECG is obtained:
A 67-year-old man presents with profound generalized weakness and inability to move his extremities or get out of bed. He has a history of hypertension, chronic kidney disease, substance use…
Key Points What It Is: A rare autosomal dominant sodium channelopathy that leads to episodic muscle weakness or paralysis in the setting of elevated serum potassium. Named after “Impressive,” the…
A 42-year-old man presents with fever, cough, shortness of breath, and vomiting. He appears toxic and dehydrated on arrival with suspected severe sepsis from multilobar pneumonia. He is later intubated…
A 57-year-old man is being brought in by EMS for generalized weakness and vomiting. The following ECG is obtained and transmitted as a CODE STEMI alert:
A 68-year-old man with PMHx of hypertension and tobacco use arrives at the emergency department with severe central chest pain and mild shortness of breath over the past 1-2 hours….
A 55-year-old woman arrives at the emergency department with shortness of breath and is noted to be tachypneic. The following ECG is obtained:
A 52-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with severe malaise and the following ECG is obtained:
A 70-year-old male presents to the emergency department with acute chest pain that sounds ischemic in nature. The following baseline ECG, arrival ECG, and repeat ECGs are obtained:
A 63-year-old man presents to the emergency department with acute chest pain and an episode of syncope. The following ECG is obtained, and the cath lab is activated for suspected…