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Preexcitation Pitfalls (Part 4): Potpourri Cases & Final Teaching Points
A 49-year-old man arrives with palpitations and chest discomfort. The monitor shows an irregular, wide-complex tachycardia with varying morphology and rates nearing 250 to 300 bpm. The team debates polymorphic…
Preexcitation Pitfalls (Part 2): Wide, Regular, Fast…Treat It Like VT
A young man with recurrent palpitations presents to the emergency department hemodynamically stable during an episode. The arrival ECG shows a wide complex, regular tachycardia and the computer interpretation calls…
Preexcitation Pitfalls (Part 1): The “Inferior STEMI” That Isn’t
A critically ill 38-year-old man presents hypotensive, pale, and diaphoretic with abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. Upright chest X-ray shows free air under the diaphragm, and the patient is headed…
Baltimore City EMS ECGs: Pitfalls and Mimics (Part 1)
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…
Three More ECG Pitfalls That Punish Anchoring Bias
A 51-year-old man with lung cancer presents with shortness of breath and tachycardia. The arrival ECG shows an S1Q3 pattern and seems to support a familiar diagnosis that would normally…
Four ECG Pitfalls That Punish Anchoring Bias
A 43-year-old woman with sharp left-sided chest pain and minimal cardiac risk factors has an initial ECG that is not diagnostic for STEMI. She looks stable, but one feature on…
Dr. Mattu’s 5 Favorite ECG Cases of 2025
A 68-year-old man presents after syncope with profound bradycardia. The ECG shows a very slow ventricular rate with high-grade AV block. The reflex move is to focus only on pacing,…
Reciprocal Depression in aVL: The Case for Serial ECGs
A 62-year-old man presents to the emergency department with acute chest pain associated with diaphoresis. He has cardiac risk factors including tobacco use. An initial 12-lead ECG is obtained on…
In the Era of High-Sensitivity Troponin, Does Unstable Angina Still Exist?
A 92-year-old man presents to the emergency department with gradually worsening dyspnea on exertion that has progressed to exertional chest “fullness”. He is asymptomatic on arrival with normal vitals. The…
The Post-Arrest Wide Complex Rhythm That Was Not VT
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…
The Wide Complex Rhythm That Fooled Everyone
A 30-year-old woman presents with one hour of chest discomfort and palpitations. On arrival she is borderline but not frankly unstable. The 12-lead shows a fast rhythm that appears wide…
AFib Overdiagnosis: Dangerous Pitfalls and Safer Reads
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…
When to Default to VT and When to Doubt It
A 64-year-old man presents to the emergency department with palpitations. He was recently found to have an acute MI and is one day s/p RCA stenting. The following ECG is…
Regularly Irregular Rhythms: Sorting Mobitz from PACs and Other Causes
A 52-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with weakness. The following ECG is obtained:
Grouped Beats: A Subtle AV Block Pitfall
An elderly patient is brought to the emergency department with acute stroke symptoms and the following routine 12-lead ECG is obtained during the patient’s stroke evaluation:
Mobitz I or Mobitz II: How to tell the difference
A 79-year-old man is sent to a community hospital for evaluation of bradycardia discovered at his nursing facility. He is ultimately transferred to a tertiary care facility for consideration of…
Recent University of Maryland Medical Center Cases (Part IV)
A 73-year-old man is brought to the emergency department with palpitations. The following ECG is obtained on arrival:
2025 ECG Competition Answers (Part 1/3)
This week we review the answers to questions 1-5 from the 13th Annual UMEM Residency ECG Competition. Make sure to attempt to answer the questions yourself before watching the video…
Recent University of Maryland Medical Center Cases (Part I)
A 67-year-old man presents to the emergency department with chest pain and palpitations. The following ECG is obtained on arrival:
Optical Illusions and 12-Lead ECGs: How First Impressions Can Mislead
A 42-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with chest pain, shortness of breath, and palpitations. Her blood pressure and mental status are noted to be normal. The following ECG…
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