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EKG (ECG) INTERPRETATION
This is the EKG (ECG) for Maria Perez from scenario SIE002US
Clinical Picture
- 80-year-old female presenting with a two-day history of diarrhoea and vomiting
- Previous cardiac issues noted, with extensive past medical history,
- Looks tired and anxious.
Findings
- Rate: 75
- Rhythm: Regular
- Axis: Normal
- Waves and intervals: No abnormality
Summary
- The EKG shows bradycardia with symmetrically peaked T waves.
Differential diagnosis
- In an elderly patient with a background of cardiac issues, presenting after a period of diarrhoea, vomiting and severe thirst, peaked T waves on an EKG indicate a differential of hyperkalemia secondary to dehydration. Myocardial infarction would give a dull, heaviness and central chest pain. A pneumothorax tends to present with sharp pain, shortness of breath and the patient may have unequal breath sounds on examination. Pericarditis is likely to present over a period of more than two days, and there is no evidence of GI reflux symptoms.
Management
- In this case, rehydration and reassurance are needed.
Further reading
References
- Wagner, P., Strodthoff, N., Bousseljot, R., Samek, W., & Schaeffter, T. (2020). PTB-XL, a large publicly available electrocardiography dataset (version 1.0.1). PhysioNet
- Wagner, P., Strodthoff, N., Bousseljot, R.-D., Kreiseler, D., Lunze, F.I., Samek, W., Schaeffter, T. (2020), PTB-XL: A Large Publicly Available ECG Dataset. Scientific Data
- Goldberger, A. et al. (2000). PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet: Components of a new research resource for complex physiologic signals. Circulation [Online]. 101 (23), pp. e215–e220.
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