To the Cath Lab or Not? You Make the Call! - Part 1

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Making big decisions on little information is the very nature of emergency medicine.  Nothing epitomizes this more than the decision to activate your cardiac catheterization lab for a patient with a potential ST elevation MI.  Grand Master of the squiggly lines, Dr. Sara Nelson, recently took us through a tour of several challenging chest pain patients and their respective ECG's.  Take a look at these cases and ask yourself, what is your initial management? What is your interpretation of the ECG  . . . do you activate the cath lab or not?.... you make the call!!

 

CASE #1

 

Case #2

 

CASE #3

 

Case #4

 

 

Sara Nelson, MD
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Maine Medical Center
Tufts University School of Medicine

Posted by Jeffrey A. Holmes, MD