To continue on a topic started by Jason Roediger in his February ECG Challenge -

This series of two ECGs was taken from a 71-year-old man who complained of dizziness and near-syncope the day before these ECGs were done.  He was seen in an Emergency Dept., and advised to follow up with a neurologist. On the day of these ECGs, still feeling dizzy and like he would pass out, he called EMS again.  He denied chest pain.  We do not know his past medical history.  The first ECG was taken at 10:22 am.  His BP was 177/76 and SpO2 99%.  It shows a regular sinus rhythm (p waves marked by small asterisks) at a rate of about 75 / min.  There is a high-grade AV block, meaning that some P waves are conducted (beats 2, 4, 7), but most are not.  In addition, he has an escape rhythm, probably ventricular, at a rate of just over 40 / min.  The overall effect of the escape rhythm is to keep the heart rate above 40 beats per minute.

Fifteen minutes later, at 10:37 am, another ECG is taken.  The patient's BP is 154/86.   This ECG shows the high-grade AV block quite well, but this time, most of the QRS complexes on the strip are conducted from P waves.  It is difficult to see all the P waves in every lead, but if you remember that all three channels are run simultaneously, you will find evidence of the P waves in at least one of the three leads represented at any given time.  (Example:  V1, V2, and V3 - V3 shows the P waves well).  The next-to-last QRS on the page is interesting, as it has a different PRI than the normally conducting beats.  Is this a fusion beat or an aberrantly-conducted one?   It probably does not matter to the outcome of the patient. 

The slowing of the rate in the second strip gives us a clue as to why the patient felt dizzy, but the blood pressures recorded did not catch hypotension.  Possibly if the patient had been standing instead of lying on a stretcher, we would have seen more hemodynamic changes.

Unfortunately, we do not know the outcome of this patient, but it seems he is a candidate for an implanted pacemaker.

This six-second monitor strip was from a patient who was designated "Do Not Resuscitate", and whose heart rhythm was slowing dramatically.  It shows an idioventricular escape rhythm, with very wide QRS complexes and only two complexes in six seconds. (The top arrows mark three-second segments.)  If you look closely at the points marked by the lower arrows, you will see small, uniform, regular P waves.  The mechanism leading to this agonal rhythm was complete heart block.  A longer strip would show the P waves as all alike, and fairly regular, but slowing.  

Today's basic rhythm strip illustrates second-degree AV block, Type II.  Even though there is fine baseline artifact present, it is easy to measure the P-to-P interval, and your students will be able to see that every third P wave falls in the T wave.  The PR intervals are constant and the atrial rate is about 110/min.  The ventricular rate results from a 3:1 conduction ratio, and is less than 30/min.  For your students who have learned about bundle branch block, this strip shows a right bundle branch block, which is very common in second-degree Type II blocks, as they usually represent "intermittent tri-fascicular block" - that is, two of the three fascicles in the bundle branches are blocked, and one is intermittently blocked.  Other combinations of complete block and intermittent block are possible, resulting in intermittent failure of conduction.  This strip can start a lively classroom discussion about treatment of bradycardias.  See comments below for discussion of terminology, second-degree AVB and high-grade AVB.  This strip can be used as a good example of high-grade AVB. 

This ECG is from a 70 year old woman for which we have, unfortunately, no clinical information.  It shows a sinus rhythm with a rate of about 72 bpm (NSR) with AV dissociation caused by third-degree heart block.  The escape rhythm is junctional at a rate of 38 bpm.  There appears to be a right bundle branch block, based on the QRS duration of 132 ms, and a wide S wave in Leads I and V6.  The precordial leads do not show the usual RBBB pattern of rSR' in V1 and V2, and the r wave progression is poor (non-existent).  This is felt to be due to poor lead placement (a good teaching point).  Of interest, the ECG machine has reported a "severe right axis deviation" based on the tall upright R wave in aVR and the deep S in avF.  In RBBB, the first part of the QRS represents left ventricular depolarization, and the terminal wave represents the delayed right ventricle.  In effect, the two ventricles have their own electrical axes, which we can see because the ventricles are not depolarizing simultaneously.  The axis of the LV appears to be normal in this tracing.

In addition to the above, this patient has a very prolonged QT interval.  The QT is longer in bradycardic rhythms, but when corrected to a standard of 60 bpm (QTc), this patient's QT interval is still prolonged at QTc: 552 ms.  Without clinical data, we cannot speculate  as to why this patient's QTc is prolonged, but it can be a very dangerous situation.  Follow the links for more information on QT prolongation and Torsades de Pointes and Long QT Syndrome.

As always, we welcome comments from our members adding insight to this interesting ECG, and also questions you would like to ask our Guru members.