Agonal Rhythm ECG Interpretation


Description

  • This is a life-threatening dysrhythmia. Agonal rhythm is often the last ordered semblance of organized electrical activity in the heart prior to death.
  • Heart rate is less than 20 bpm, without P waves and a wide, bizarre QRS complex.
  • The rate is often so slow, that on a singular six-second rhythm strip it will be impossible to determine whether the rhythm is regular or irregular. There must be at lest three complexes on the tracing to make this call. Many times there will only be one or two complexes captured on the ecg strip.
agonal ecg rhythm image 111

Practice Strip

agonal rhythm ecg image 112

Analyze this tracing using the five steps of rhythm analysis.

Show Answer
  • Rhythm: Cannot determine (only two complexes)
  • Rate: 20 (using the six-second technique)
  • Rate: 14 (using the 1500 technique – 110 small boxes/1500)
  • P Wave: absent
  • PR interval: n/a
  • QRS: Wide and bizarre 0.20 sec
  • Interpretation: Idioventricular Rhythm





Authors and Sources

Authors and Reviewers


Sources

  • Electrocardiography for Healthcare Professionals, 6th Edition Kathryn Booth and Thomas O'Brien
    ISBN10: 1265013470, ISBN13: 9781265013479
    McGraw Hill, 2023
  • Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, Sixth Edition
    Dale Dublin
    Cover Publishing Company
  • EKG Reference Guide
    EKG.Academy
  • 12 Lead EKG for Nurses: Simple Steps to Interpret Rhythms, Arrhythmias, Blocks, Hypertrophy, Infarcts, & Cardiac Drugs
    Aaron Reed
    Create Space Independent Publishing
  • Heart Sounds and Murmurs: A Practical Guide with Audio CD-ROM 3rd Edition
    Elsevier-Health Sciences Division
    Barbara A. Erickson, PhD, RN, CCRN
  • The Virtual Cardiac Patient: A Multimedia Guide to Heart Sounds, Murmurs, EKG Jonathan Keroes, David Lieberman
    Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin)
    ISBN-10: 0781784425; ISBN-13: 978-0781784429
  • Project Semilla, UCLA Emergency Medicine, EKG Training Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH
  • ECG Reference Guide
    PracticalClinicalSkills.com






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