Special Considerations
Circumstance that would require the tech perform the EKG with the patient positioned so that her body is tilted slightly to the left.
What is pregnancy (esp. 3rd trimester)?
Standard paper speed and gain settings for an EKG.
What is 25 mm/second and 10 mm?
EKG reading obtained while the patient is exercising or has been given a stimulant drug.
What is a stress test?
Rank each part of the cardiac conduction system from highest to lowest intrinsic rate.
A wavy appearance to the baseline of the EKG often causing by poor adhesion of the electrodes.
What is wandering baseline?
Bonus: What are common causes of wandering baseline?
Asking a patient to place their hands under their legs/buttocks during an EKG can help to reduce this type of artifact.
What is somatic tremor?
Locations for placement of electrodes to obtain a 3-lead.
RA, LA, and RL
Appropriate target heartrate for a stress test to be valid for a 50 year old patient.
220 - 50 + 170bpm, x 0.85 = 145 bpm
Procedure used to determine the PR interval using the small block method.
What is to count the number of small blocks and multiply by 0.04?
Bonus: How could this be adapted to determine the R-R Interval quickly?
The amount of blood pumped with each heartbeat.
What is stroke volume?
Bonus: Stroke volume vs. cardiac output
Limb lead placement for a patient with an amputation.
What is to put the electrode as close to normal placement as possible, and then to mirror the electrode placement on the other limb.
The name for the 12-second tracing of Lead-II at the bottom of an EKG tracing
What is a rhythm strip?
Identified as any rhythm on the EKG monitor but with a patient that is in cardiac arrest.
What is pulseless electrical activity (PEA)?
Term for when a pacemaker fires but no contraction occurs.
What is failure to capture?
The effect of increasing the speed at which EKG paper passes through the machine.
What is that it makes the features on the tracing more spread out?
Bonus: Why would this be helpful for interpretation?
This type of EKG may be performed due to suspicion of an inferior myocardial infarction.
What is a posterior EKG?
Bonus: What is the placement for this test?
A downward waveform on an EKG that is below the isoelectric line is described using this term.
What is negative deflection?
What is that a synchronous pacemaker fires at the same rate regardless of any other electrical activity; an asynchronous pacemaker only fires when a beat is not stimulated?
Bonus: An asynchronous pacemaker is also known as what?
Things to check before leaving a patient room after obtaining a clear EKG.
Lethal dysrhythmias and any ST segment abnormality.
The reason that artifact needs to be resolved or minimized when obtaining an EKG.
Artifact can make the EKG misleading causing inaccurate diagnosis or completely unreadable.
Movement of this electrode is necessary for pediatric patients between 2 and 12 years of age.
What is V4?
Bonus: Where is it moved to?
The two "lethal rhythms", which can be identified and shocked by an AED.
What is ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation?
The component of the EKG that is abnormal in a sinus arrhythmia.
What is the R-R interval?
Defines sinus tachycardia using the 6-step method.
Rate: 120-160 bpm
Rhythm: Regular, Consistent R-R Interval
P-Waves: Present, Upright, Rounded, Matching
PR: 0.12-0.20 seconds
QRS: Narrow, < 0.08 seconds
What occurs when the SA node fails; when another area of the conduction system is irritable.
A cell outside of the SA node initiates an electrical impulse.
Bonus: What will change in the morphology of the aberrant beat?