Lower Extremity Paralysis

Severe hypokalemia in the absence of other electrolyte abnormalities, the result of diarrhea, caused striking electrocardiographic changes, generalized weakness, flaccid paralysis of the lower extremities, and biochemical evidence of mild skeletal and cardiac rhabdomyolysis in a 33-year-old man. Repletion of potassium reversed all abnormalities in 24 hours.

ECG of the Month: Wide-QRS Tachycardias

A 61-year-old man came from out of state to attend a football game. He felt well during the game, but when he stood up to leave, he became dizzy and dyspneic. The symptoms lasted 15 to 20 minutes, and when the paramedics arrived, they diagnosed an idioventricular rhythm and brought the patient to the emergency department where a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded (Figure 1).

ECG Case of the Month: Heart Failure in a Man from Chile

A 49-year-old man visiting New Orleans from Chile comes to the hospital complaining of exertional dyspnea for 2 months with the more recent onset of ankle edema. He is a slender man with a blood pressure of 91/60 mmHg, crackles at both lung bases, and markedly distended neck veins. His cardiac rhythm is irregular. A soft murmur of mitral regurgitation and a soft S-3 are heard at the left ventricular apex. All four pedal pulses are easily palpable. Epigastric tenderness is noted on palpation; although the patient has a history of peptic ulcer disease, the tenderness is probably due to an enlarged left lobe of his liver, the result of hepatic congestion from his heart failure. A chest radiograph shows generalized cardiomegaly with an especially large left ventricle. Pulmonary congestion and small bilateral pleural effusions also are noted. The Figure shows the electrocardiogram recorded on admission.

ECG of the Month: Subtle ECG Change in a 31 Year-Old Man with Recent Chest Pain

A 31-year-old man had an hour of pain across the upper portion of his chest anteriorly, and it radiated down the inner aspects of both arms. The pain came while he was walking and gradually disappeared as he sat quietly. Six Rolaid tablets did not seem to alter the pain. The pain was unaccompanied by dyspnea, sweating, nausea or vomiting. The night before the patient had had similar pain relieved by Rolaids and belching. After the second episode of pain, he went to the emergency department of a local hospital where an ECG was recorded.

ECG Of The Month: Sepsis, ARDS, and Tracheal Intubation

A furuncle on the leg of a 23-year-old woman led to methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus sepsis and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring tracheal intubation in the intensive care unit (ICU). Initially her electrocardiograms (ECGs) showed sinus tachycardia, but otherwise were unchanged from prior ECGs. A week into her ICU stay a different rhythm occurred.

Chest Pain, Heart Murmur, and Changing Electrocardiograms

Physical examination, electrocardiograms, and an echo-Doppler study document multiple consequences of a right coronary arterial occlusion.

ECG Of the Month: Suicide

Apparently depression ran in this man's family, and when he took an overdose of his tricyclic antidepressant, he also took the tricyclics of his mother and his sister. Most patients who die of an overdose of a tricyclic antidepressant are pronounced dead without reaching a hospital, and those who die after arriving in the emergency room do so within a few hours.2 Central nervous system toxicity of tricyclic antidepressants may manifest as confusion, agitation, hallucinations, coma, myoclonus, or seizures. Generalized seizures often presage cardiopulmonary arrest,2 and within 20 seconds of the ECG with evidence of generalized seizure activity shown here, the QRS duration increased from 188 ms to 212 ms, and the patient died soon thereafter.

ECG Case of the Month: IRREGULARLY IRREGULAR CARDIAC RHYTHM IN AN 87-YEAR-OLD WOMAN. MULTIFOCAL ATRIAL TACHYCARDIA; RIGHT BUNDLE BRANCH BLOCK

Multifocal atrial tachycardia; right bundle branch block. The rhythm is totally irregular at a rate of 103 beats/min and originally was read as atrial fibrillation. Close examination, however, reveals a P wave before each QRS and ≥ 3 different P- wave morphologies with no dominant morphology. These are the criteria for multifocal atrial tachycardia MAT, also known as chaotic atrial rhythm,1 chaotic atrial tachycardia,2 and chaotic atrial mechanism.3 The wide QRS complexes ≥ 0.12 s with broad S waves in leads I, aVL, and the lateral precordial leads and broad R or R´ waves in leads aVR and V1 indicate right bundle branch block. MAT is frequently seen in patients with acute pulmonary or other non-cardiac disease and tends to resolve when the underlying disease is brought under control. Patients with MAT also tend to have bouts of other arrhythmias,2 and 3 months earlier this.

ECG of the Month: ECG in an 81-Year-Old Woman

Sinus bradycardia (48 beats/min), long P-R interval (0.29 s), long QT interval (0.53 s with QTc of 0.47 s), and prominent J waves suggest hypothermia; non-specific ST abnormality.

ECG of the Month:Changing Morphology of a Wide-QRS Tachycardia

An obese 49-year-old man with a history of systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, three myocardial infarcts, an ischemic cardiomyopathy, a four-vessel coronary artery bypass operation 7 years earlier, and implantation of a cardioverter-defibrillator 2 years earlier comes to the hospital with palpitations and dyspnea. An ECG is recorded.

ECG of the Month:A Forty-Year-Old Woman with a History of a Cardiac Operation at Age 5 Years

There is a sinus P wave in front of each QRS, and the rate is 122 beats/min. The QRS voltage is large and meets many criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy: RI > 13 mm (1.3 mV); RaVF > 19 mm; SaVR > 14 mm; SV1 > 24 mm; SV2 > 30 mm; RV6 > 26 mm; RV6 > RV5; SV1 + RV5 or RV6 > 35 mm; SV2 + RV5 or RV6 > 45 mm; RaVL + SV3 > 20 mm in a woman.1 In addition, there are two non-voltage criteria for LVH: QRS duration = 0.11 s and typical repolarization changes: J-point depression with a downsloping ST segment into an inverted T wave and a more rapid upslope back to the baseline. The prolonged QRS duration and repolarization changes are also typical of incomplete left bundle branch block (ILBBB). LVH is present in most patients with complete LBBB,2,3 and probably in most with ILBBB. The patient underwent aortic valvotomy at age 5 to relieve congenital stenosis. Although different valvular morphologies can result in aortic stenosis, when hemodynamically significant stenosis is present in infancy or early childhood the valve is usually unicuspid/unicommissural. Aortic valvotomy can greatly reduce the left ventricular outflow obstruction in such patients, but the majority eventually need reoperation. This usually means aortic valve replacement. This woman now has severe aortic stenosis and regurgitation with not only left but also right ventricular failure, which is a late development with pure aortic valve disease. She needs aortic valve replacement. Unfortunately having one severe disease does not preclude another, and her operative course will be complicated by multiple sclerosis which she developed some 12 years ago.

Myocardial Infarction and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Seen on an Infant's Electrocardiogram

The clinical and electrocardiographic features of anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary trunk, ALCAPA, a frequently fatal congenital cardiac malformation, are described in an 8 1/2-month-old female.