Senator Hart has been feeling fatigued and notices palpitati

Senator Hart has been feeling fatigued and notices palpitations. He visits his physician, who runs an ECG, generating the trace shown below. Determine the senator\'s heart rate and evaluate whether it is normal; explain how you arrived at your answer. Analyze the ECG trace. Is it normal? Why or why not?

Solution

1. There are 20 small squares in between each big square. 7x3 big squares are present in between first two QRS complex therefore, the total time is ‘total number of small squares x 0.04 seconds’.

=7 x3 x20 x0.04s = 16.8

That means the heart takes approximate 17 seconds for one heartbeat. Therefore heart rate per minute is 60/17 = 3.5 or 4 beats per minute.

2. The plot is not normal because there are three other small waves are also generating after T wave (in between two consecutive QRS complex). That is suggesting Senator’s heart is abnormal.