LP 12 .... ? 6 lead ?

[tskstorm]

You make a good point and I'd have to meet you halfway on that; I did have visions of somebody spending forever-and-a-day on the floor of the bathroom pissing about with ECG cables when their patient is circling the drain about to go down the loo.

The more I think about a quick look-see to rule out an inferior MI before giving GTN would be handy, but, if your patient is sick enough to forego the time it takes to do a 12 lead, chances are they are too hypotensive to get GTN anyway!

While I am certainly no authority on the subject seems to me with the exception of an inferior MI, if we are looking for quick rhythm obtainment in a critically sick patient a 3 lead would work just as well so we can rule out say VT or a bradydysrhythmia as the cause of there problem.

.... anyway I still say we find an old Lifepak 10 and do a nine lead!

The basic idea behind this is you can get 6 views in the same time it took you to get 3! It will barely change treatment modality, just a rough estimate of what you can expect upon full examination, kind of like palping a bp its an estimate of what we will get upon taking a proper bp!

I mean if you already put the limb leads on for a quick rhythm analysis, how many seconds does it take to hit "12 lead" twice?