Article Text
Abstract
Accident & Emergency Department Senior House Officers rely heavily on their ECG interpretation skills in the diagnosis and management of patients with chest pain. This prospective double-blind study was designed to test the accuracy with which Accident & Emergency Senior House Officers interpret ECGs, by comparing their interpretation with that of a Consultant Cardiologist. ECGs from 279 of 314 consecutive patients with chest pain were analysed. Ninety per cent of normal electrocardiographs and 57% of abnormal ECGs were correctly interpreted. Despite the inaccurate interpretation of 43% of abnormal ECGs, 96.5% of the patients in the study were considered to have been managed correctly. Audit of all ECGs recorded in the Accident & Emergency Department should be undertaken by someone with experience of ECG interpretation. New A&E staff should receive training in the interpretation of ECGs.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
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.