Two Movement Artefacts

Report:

Sinus rhythm 81/min

Nonspecific ST/T changes

Movement artefact

Comment:

The wobbly crinkled baseline in the first set of leads is due to movement but does not deserve a mention because it does not distort the trace much. In V6, however, there is a neat, sharply circumscribed, dip after every QRS, always at the same distance. This is what I call electro-mechanical association! Some of it is also visible in V4. It is obviously due to the electrode displacement by the beating heart, excluding – though unnecessarily, electro-mechanical dissociation (EMD)53!

It is not often that physical signs can be observed on the ECG. Another example is Parkinsonism, with its flutter-like 5/sec tremor. Another is the RV impulse in the anteroseptal leads, analogous to one shown above.

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