Ecg Interpretation Pocket Tutor 1st Edition Simon James Katherine Nelson by Simon James, Katherine Nelson 9781907816031, 1907816038 instant download after payment.

It is just over one hundred years since the very first recording that we would recognise as a  modern electrocardiogram (ECG) was made by Willem Einthoven in 1903. This technique has since become one of the most useful clinical investigations available. There is an ECG machine on almost every hospital ward, in almost every doctor’s office or practice, and in many emergency service vehicles. Almost every patient will at some time get an ECG, and since we are all likely to be patients at some stage in our life we  shall all have our very own ECG recorded.

It is surprising, however, that very few of the doctors that record and use ECGs are really comfortable with interpreting the trace, and the majority rely on a machine-read analysis of the ECG or on a manual over-read by an expert colleague. Some ECG machine manufacturers have speculated that such is the general ignorance of the medical profession about how to read an ECG that the trace itself could be dispensed with and only the machine report might be produced. Those of us who do read ECGs, however, know that ECG machines often misdiagnose the trace, particularly when no clinical information or previous recordings are accessible to aid the diagnostic process. It therefore seems necessary that most of us who use the ECG should understand its normal configuration and the way it changes in the presence of disease.