You are here

Article Text

Article menu
PDF
Electronic pages
Do we intervene inappropriately for ST elevation?
  1. A Sanders,
  2. A Froude,
  3. F Probst
  1. Emergency Department, Charing Cross Hospital, UK
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr A Sanders
 Specialist Registrar, Emergency Department, Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham Palace Rd, London W6 8RF, UK; alisanders{at}btinternet.com

Abstract

ST elevation on a 12 lead ECG is one of the cardinal features of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), yet it also occurs with other clinical conditions such as spontaneous pneumothorax. Three cases are presented, all of whom had chest pain and ST elevation. All had pneumothoraces yet only one had an AMI. Thrombolysis was administered to one patient. With the current pressure on "door-to-needle" times, emergency physicians should take care to differentiate between these entities.

  • AMI, acute myocardial infarction
  • RBBB, right bundle branch block
  • ST elevation
  • spontaneous pneumothorax
  • thrombolysis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2004.020537

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: none declared

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Copyright information:

    Copyright 2006 by the Emergency Medicine Journal