Tachypnœa

Report:

Supraventricular tachycardia, probably sinus, 108/min

Respiratory movement artefact 39 - 44/min

Comment:

The marked respiratory movement virtually invalidates ECG monitoring. The same would happen to pulmonary artery pressure trace. A side benefit of endotracheal intubation in the ICU is a clear baseline for the ECG and other studies while the patient is still paralysed! A problem may arise, at times, when paralysis replaces sedation173.

The strip on this page is from a different but similar patient.

This degree of tachypnœa is rarely sustained for long. One should not need the monitor, however, to observe it. On the other hand, the recorded rates are sometimes at variance with the “observed” ones - an easy “quality assurance” project to placate one’s idle superiors.

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