Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Heart of the Matter



Challenge: Diagnosis?

Related Questions:
1. The red box in the second image marks an interval. What interval is it and how long is it?
2. What does the blue box represent?
3. The blue box plus the green box represents something. What interval is it and how long is it?

Both images are shown under GNU Free Documentation License.

2 comments:

Alex said...

delta waves, wolf parkinson white syndrome?

Craig said...

Heart of the Matter

The EKGs show Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a pre-excitation of the heart due to an accessory pathway via the Bundle of Kent. Although generally asymptomatic, these patients have an increased risk of sudden death. The PR interval (red bar) looks about 0.08 seconds (~2 small boxes). This is short, representing an impulse traveling through the accessory pathway. The blue bar represents the characteristic delta wave, a slurred QRS upstroke. The blue and green bars combined make up the QRS which is prolonged ( 0.12 seconds).

Source: Wikipedia.