TwitterFacebookInstagramRss

ECG cases is a monthly blog by Jesse McLaren (@ECGcases), a Toronto emergency physician with an interest in emergency cardiology quality improvement and education. Each post features a number of ECGs related to a particular theme or diagnosis (with a focus on acute coronary occlusion), so you can test your interpretation skills. We challenge you with missed or delayed diagnosis, those with false positive diagnosis, and those that had a rapid and correct diagnosis. Cases are followed by a quick summary of the literature that relates to the cases, and we bring it home with practice changing pearls that you can use on your next shift.

ECG Cases 13: LVH and Occlusion MI

LVH produces secondary repolarization abnormalities that can mimic STEMI. Signs of occlusion MI in patients with LVH include: new Q waves/loss of R waves, disproportionate and dynamic ST elevation (or ST depression from posterior MI), and hyperacute T waves. In this ECG Cases blog we look at 6 patients who presented with potentially ischemic symptoms and LVH on their ECG. Which had an acute coronary occlusion?

By |2020-09-15T16:11:35-04:00September 15th, 2020|Categories: Cardiology, ECG Cases, EM Cases, Medical Specialty|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
Read More

ECG Cases 11: LBBB + Occlusion MI

In ECG Cases 11 - LBBB + Occlusion MI Jesse McLaren runs through 5 patients who present with potentially ischemic symptoms and LBBB and explains the evolution of decision making for cath lab activation criteria. The two most important points are that we should always use the Smith-modified Sgarbossa Criteria to identify occlusion MI in the patient with ischemic symptoms and LBBB, whether old or new, and that those with refractory ischemia and hemodynamic instability from suspected occlusion MI require cath lab activation regardless of the ECG....

By |2020-07-13T12:22:19-04:00July 13th, 2020|Categories: Cardiology, ECG Cases, EM Cases, Emergency Medicine, Medical Specialty|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
Read More

ECG Cases 10 – Hyperkalemia: The Great Imitator

Which of the following 9 patients had hyperkalemia? Can you estimate how high their serum potassium was based on the ECG? Jesse MacLaren guides us through 9 ECGs underscoring the fact that while the ECG cannot rule out hyperkalemia, significant hyperkalemia often produces ECG changes in the heart rate (bradycardia, junctional rhythm), electrical conduction (PR prolongation or loss of P waves, QRS prolongation, pacemaker delays), and ST/T waves (Brugada phenocopy, peaked T waves that are narrow/pointy) that can be easily recognized. He suggests when you might pull the trigger on giving empiric calcium treatment based on the ECG finding in this month's ECG Cases...

By |2020-06-15T21:35:47-04:00June 15th, 2020|Categories: ECG Cases, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , |4 Comments
Read More

ECG Cases 8 Cardiovascular Emergencies During The COVID-19 Pandemic

In this ECG Cases blog we look at 6 patients who presented with cardiorespiratory symptoms, possibly from COVID and illustrate the dangers of anchoring, being hypervigilant for cardiovascular complications, and why testing for COVID in patients being admitted for ACS is important...

By |2020-04-14T21:50:57-04:00April 14th, 2020|Categories: COVID-19, ECG Cases|Tags: , , , , |2 Comments
Read More

About Us

Emergency Medicine Cases (EM Cases) is a free online medical education podcast, medical blog and website dedicated to providing online emergency medicine education and CME for physicians, residents, students nurses and paramedics. We are Canada’s most listened to emergency medicine podcast with thousands of subscribers, well over 12 million podcast downloads since 2010 and are proudly part of the #FOAMed community. In each Main episode podcast 2 or more experts in a particular emergency medicine topic join Dr. Helman in a round-table, case-based discussion on key practice changing clinical emergency medicine topics, which are then carefully edited to maximize your learning. EM Cases’ Journal Jam podcast brings together world-renowned researchers and educators to keep you up to date on key research papers in EM, the EM Quick Hits podcast has 5 minute segments from 10 experts in specific challenging EM topics, and the Best Case Ever podcast has guest experts sharing their tacit knowledge on particularly interesting cases. We also offer the CritCases blog and Waiting to Be Seen blog as well as eBooks, Rapid Reviews Videos of the main episode podcasts, POCUS Cases videos, a Quiz Vault, and interactive courses.

Our Team is headed by EM Cases founder and host Dr. Anton Helman. Our Advisory Board includes prominent leaders in the faculty of the University of Toronto Divisions of Emergency Medicine. Our Guest Experts, which number more than 100 in total, North America’s brightest minds in emergency medicine, are carefully chosen for each episode topic.

EM Cases is made possible by the support of  The Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Medicine Institute (SREMI), a non-profit academic institution whose mission is to improve research and education in Emergency Medicine.

Go to Top