Abstract

The Sgarbossa criteria can be used to identify patients who have acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the presence of left bundle branch block, which obscures the usual changes associated with ST elevation myocardial infarction. Patients with ventricular paced rhythm have ECG changes with similar morphology to left bundle branch block. A short-cut systematic review was carried out to establish whether the Sgarbossa criteria can accurately diagnose AMI in the presence of ventricular paced rhythm. Three studies were directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that