ECG BASICS
This test records the electrical activity of the heart.
What is an electrocardiogram (ECG)?
This wave represents atrial depolarization.
What is the P wave?
This position is where V1 is placed.
What is 4th intercostal space, right sternal border?
This artifact looks like a fuzzy, thick baseline from muscle movement.
What is muscle artifact?
A 12-lead ECG uses this many electrodes on the patient.
What is 10?
This complex represents ventricular depolarization.
What is the QRS complex?
This position is where V4 is placed.
What is 5th intercostal space, midclavicular line?
This artifact causes slow drifting of the baseline.
What is wandering baseline artifact?
These two types of limb leads include Leads I, II, III and aVR, aVL, aVF.
What are bipolar and augmented leads?
One large ECG box equals this amount of time.
What is 0.20 seconds?
These are the four limb electrode abbreviations.
What are RA, LA, RL, LL?
This artifact is caused by electrical interference from equipment.
What is 60-cycle interference?
This type of lead measures electrical difference between two electrodes.
What is a bipolar lead?
Five large boxes equal this amount of time.
What is 1 second?
Name two patient prep steps before ECG.
What are cleaning skin, shaving hair, removing jewelry, explaining procedure, positioning supine?
This artifact appears as a sudden break in the tracing.
What is interrupted baseline artifact?
This explains why a 12-lead ECG has 10 electrodes but 12 views.
What is multiple electrical viewpoints created from combinations of electrodes?
This wave represents ventricular repolarization.
What is the T wave?
This is the correct patient position during a standard 12-lead ECG.
What is supine and still?
This is the most common cause of muscle artifact during ECG.
What is patient movement or shivering?