Key Points: What It Is: Brugada syndrome is an inherited arrhythmogenic disorder associated with ventricular fibrillation (VF), polymorphic VT, and sudden cardiac death, often in patients without obvious structural heart…
Key Points: The Barcelona Criteria are ECG criteria proposed to identify acute myocardial infarction in patients with LBBB. Core problem: LBBB causes expected secondary ST-T changes, so standard STEMI millimeter…
Key Points: T wave alternans is beat-to-beat alternation in T wave amplitude, polarity, or morphology with otherwise stable P waves and QRS complexes. Visible T wave alternans is a warning…
Key Points: Definition: Sinus bradycardia is a sinus rhythm with a rate <60 bpm. In clinical practice, a rate <50 bpm is often a more useful threshold because resting rates…
Key Points: The J point is the junction between the end of the QRS complex and the beginning of the ST segment. It is a location, not a separate waveform….
Key Points: The first post-ROSC ECG is essential but imperfect. Obtain it immediately, but interpret it in context. Global ischemia, defibrillation, acidosis, hypothermia, vasopressors, artifact, and severe metabolic derangements can…
Key Points: Persistent ST elevation after ROSC remains a guideline-supported indication for emergency coronary angiography. The 2025 ACC/AHA/ACEP/NAEMSP/SCAI ACS guideline recommends emergency angiography for patients after cardiac arrest with suspected…
Key Points: Stable post-arrest patients without ST elevation should not go to reflex immediate cath solely because cardiac arrest occurred. Randomized trials in OHCA patients without ST elevation have not…
Key Points: A spectrum, not a single rhythm: Sinus node dysfunction includes inappropriate sinus bradycardia, sinus pauses or arrest, SA exit block, chronotropic incompetence, and alternating atrial tachyarrhythmias with bradycardia….
Key Points: Definition: Sinoatrial, or SA, exit block occurs when the sinus node generates an impulse that fails to conduct into the surrounding atrial tissue. The blocked impulse produces no…
Key Points: Normal cardiac conduction begins in the SA node, travels through the atria to the AV node, then enters the His-Purkinje system to activate both ventricles rapidly and synchronously….
Key Points: RBBB delays right ventricular activation. The left ventricle depolarizes normally through the left bundle, while the right ventricle is activated late by slow myocardial spread. ECG hallmark: QRS…
Key Points: LBBB delays left ventricular activation. The RV activates first through the intact right bundle, then the impulse spreads slowly from right to left across the septum and LV…
Key Points: Definition: The QT interval is measured from the onset of the QRS complex to the end of the T wave. It represents the total duration of ventricular depolarization…
Key Points: Junctional tachycardia is an uncommon supraventricular tachycardia arising from the AV junction, usually due to enhanced automaticity rather than reentry. It is usually a regular narrow-complex tachycardia, although…
Key Points: Definition: Torsade de pointes is a specific form of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (PMVT) occurring in the setting of prolonged ventricular repolarization/QT prolongation. ECG Pattern: TdP shows beat-to-beat variation…
Key Points: What It Is: Acquired Long QT Syndrome is delayed ventricular repolarization caused by an external or clinical factor, most commonly QT-prolonging medications, electrolyte abnormalities, or bradycardia. Why It…
Key Points: What It Is: Congenital Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) is an inherited cardiac channelopathy that delays ventricular repolarization and predisposes patients to torsades de pointes (TdP), ventricular fibrillation, syncope,…
Key Points: Junctional rhythms arise from the AV junction, usually the AV node or proximal His bundle, when the sinus node slows, fails, or impulses do not reach the ventricles…
Key Points: Pediatric ECGs are not scaled-down adult ECGs. Right axis deviation, large R waves in V1, and T wave inversions in V1 to V3 are expected in healthy children….
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