This article is the fifth in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. Lead aVR I have a love-hate relationship with aVR. There is one big question that always looms around it: Is ST-elevation in aVR a STEMI-equivalent? Like most […]

This article is the fifth in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. Lead aVF I dug myself quite a hole on this one as there’s really not much to say about aVF. It’s located midway between leads II and […]

This article is the fourth in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. Lead aVL Today’s  review is going to be light on text (but heavy on EKG’s) to make time for Wednesday’s big post on aVR. It also helps that […]

This article is the third in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. Lead III Lead III is great at identifying STEMI’s. In patients presenting with signs and symptoms concerning for ACS but no clear ischemia on the initial ECG, it’s […]

This article is the second in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. The Lead II Sign Yesterday, we covered the lead I sign, so it’s only fitting that we discuss the lead II sign today.   It’s a commonly […]

This article is the first in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. The Lead I Sign This patient has COPD.   So does this patient.   Also, this patient.   How do I know that? Well, I met the patients […]

An 11  year old male presents with complaint of substernal chest pain, 6/10, unable to describe the sensation but non-radiating, which  started while running. Primary assessment: Patent airway Adequate respiratory effort with no signs of distress skin is pink, warm and dry, with no signs of hypoperfusion Pertinent medical Hx: Chronic Interstitial Lung Disease Secondary  Pulmonary […]

No mysteries here today – this is an inferior STEMI! But I thought that prehospital provider might like to see what happens “on the inside” during an MI. The Case: A 60-something female had a few days of feeling not quite right, so she did some Googling, and she began to worry about a heart […]

This is the conclusion to the Snapshot Case from a couple of days ago. If you haven’t already done so, I suggest reviewing the very brief initial case description. Here again is the EKG from Tuesday’s case. This tracing is nearly pathognomonic for true occlusion of the left main coronary artery (LMCA), resulting in a […]

Here’s a blog post so promotional that it may crash Facebook’s throttling algorithm! In case you weren’t aware, the EMS Today conference is back in Baltimore and is scheduled to take place  February 25-28, 2015. In my last blog post I wrote about some of the reasons I love Baltimore and why I believe it’s the […]