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ECG library

Sinus tachycardia

intro

A 66-year-old with fever and hypotension on the medical ward.

25 mm/s · 10 mm/mV · synthetic tracing
100%
IIIIIIaVRaVLaVFV1V2V3V4V5V6
II (rhythm)
Calipers:2000 ms50.0 small boxes30 bpm if R-RDrag the orange markers. One small box = 40 ms.

Key findings

  • Rate above 100 with sinus P waves
  • Narrow QRS
  • Rate marches with the underlying cause

Learning points

  • Sinus tachycardia is a symptom: fever, pain, hypovolemia, sepsis, PE, anemia, withdrawal.
  • Treating the rate instead of the cause is the classic ward error.

Connected