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Acute chest pain, right bundle branch block, no STEMI criteria, and negative initial troponin.

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

The paramedic called the EM physician ahead of arrival and discussed the case and ECGs, and both agreed upon activating "Code STEMI" (even though of course it is not STEMI by definition), so that the acute LAD occlusion could be treated as fast as possible. So the cath lab was activated. Long term outcome is unavailable.

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Chest pain with serial ECGs – can you guess the sequence?

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

Obvious infero-postero-lateral STEMI(+)OMI, regardless of context Now let’s put them in order: what was the sequence? With serial ECGs that are ‘STEMI negative’ the physician could have waited for serial troponin levels or referred the patient as “non-STEMI”. What was the outcome and final diagnosis?

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Expert human ECG interpretation and/or the Queen of Hearts could have saved this patient's anterior wall

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

She knows the baseline is normal, and she knows the STEMI(-) OMI one is diagnostic of OMI, with the highest possible confidence. Here is the EM decision making: "The patient's EKG revealed some repolarization abnormalities but no clear signs of a STEMI. Back to the case: Unfortunately, the ECG was not understood by the provider.

OR 127
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Does the literature support medications for stable, monomorphic ventricular tachycardia?

EMDocs

Major adverse cardiac events 40 minutes after giving the antiarrhythmic. The following table shows their results, take a look: Note that procainamide leads with less adverse cardiac events. Procainamide therapy was associated with less major cardiac adverse events and a higher proportion of tachycardia termination within 40 min.

ALS 75
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Will this case be flagged for Quality Improvement in the STEMI/NSTEMI Paradigm?

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

Theres ST elevation in V3-4 which meets STEMI criteria, which could be present in either early repolarization, pericarditis or injury. Lets see what happens in the current STEMI paradigm. Emergency physician: STEMI neg but with elevated troponin = Non-STEMI The first ECG was signed off. What do you think?

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Which patient has the more severe chest pain?

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

Methods and Results Patients with confirmed ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated by emergency medical services were included in this retrospective cohort analysis of the AVOID study. There was no association between moderate to severe chest pain on arrival and major adverse cardiac events at 6 months (20% vs. 14%, p=0.12).

STEMI 119
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Cath Lab occupied. Which patient should go now (or does only one need it? Or neither?)

Dr. Smith's ECG Blog

A prehospital “STEMI” activation was called on a 75 year old male ( Patient 1 ) with a history of hyperlipidemia and LAD and Cx OMI with stent placement. The two cases were considered: Patient 1 was recognized by the ED provider and the cardiologist as having resolved “STEMI”. He wrote most of it and I (Smith) edited.

OR 116