From Journal Feed:
Spoon Feed
A significant minority of code STEMI patients have an initial normal computer ECG interpretation. Consequently, emergency physicians must remain vigilant to identify signs of OMI regardless of the initial computer ECG interpretation.
When the computer says the ECG is not bad, the patient could still need the cath lab…
This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study from 2016 to 2022 evaluating the initial computer ECG interpretation of all 536 patients who went emergently to the cath lab from the emergency department as a Code STEMI. Out of the 536 patients, 394 patients were found to have culprit lesions, 16 (4.1%) of which had an initial ECG labeled as normal by the computer, 6 of which were identified in real time by the emergency physician. This leads the authors to conclude the importance of emergency provider triage ECG interpretation despite a normal interpretation by the computer. This study provides an alternate perspective regarding the necessity of reviewing ECGs that the computer has identified as normal, as multiple recent studies have advocated that this may not be necessary. However, many of these studies reviewed only normal ECGs in small patient populations who were relatively low risk, over a more abbreviated period of time, with suboptimal outcome measures.
Source
Emergency department Code STEMI patients with initial electrocardiogram labeled “normal” by computer interpretation: A 7-year retrospective review. Acad Emerg Med. 2024 Mar;31(3):296-300. doi: 10.1111/acem.14795. Epub 2023 Sep 17. PMID: 37620163.
Comentarios