Friday, November 14, 2008

Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum

You're a big fan of Matt Damon and buy the super deluxe froo-froo special collector's DVD version of The Bourne Identity. The opening scene cuts to a stormy night on an Italian fishing boat where one of the crew members pulls a body out of the water. In a scene omitted from the movie version, the medic puts on some EKG leads. With your ultra high definition Blu-Ray-Blue-Tooth TV, you can make this out:

Challenge: What's the abnormality, and what does it mean?

Image shown under fair use.

2 comments:

Alex said...

not very sure. we think v2 looks like brugada syndrome because of R-R' and inverted T wave. III looks like a AV junctional rhythm because of preserved QRS, no P wave, and bradycardia.

we're guessing bourne was poisoned

Craig said...

not bad...you're right, this could be confused with an RSR' or Brugada perhaps, but I was going for hypothermia.
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Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum

Fitting in with the movie, this EKG shows a characteristic Osborne (unfortunately, not spelled bourne) or J wave, best seen in the precordial leads V2, V3, V4 right after the QRS complex. This is characteristic of hypothermia (<93F or 34C) which causes slow conduction throughout all cardiac tissues with prolongation of all intervals.

Sources: UpToDate; askdrwiki.com.