For a police officer who visits a crime site every one looks like a culprit. For a cardiologist sitting in coronary care unit all chest pain will have to look like an infarct ! Then only he is a cardiologist !
A rare , but costly mistake occasionally happens . When a patient with severe chest pain in the retro sternal region with ST elevation in ECG , enters the ER there is little reason to suspect any condition other than STEMI !
This is how medical errors takes place
Medicine is an art , we can not take it as granted .Acute MI can present with normal ECG and a dramatic ST elevation need not be MI
Here was a patient who presented with this ECG and one our fellows correctly diagnosed the condition .
Most physicians would have thromolysed this patient or might have wheeled into cath lab. We have such events reported from primary PCI registry .
Key differentiating points
- Diffuse ST elevation not confining to a arterial territory
- Absence of reciprocal changes
- ST segment with concavity upwards.
- Echocardiogram and enzymes will be useful
iFAQs in pericarditis
What is the mechanism of ST elevation pericarditis ?
It is actually a zone of epicardial or Sub epicardial injury.
What will be the ECG finding if STEMI is associated with fibrinous pericarditis ?
Double dose of ST elevation .Mimics a re infarction.
What are the dangers of thrombolysing a patient with diffuse pericarditis ?
It can bleed into pericardial space
What happens
What will be the ECG finding in localised pericarditis ?
Dr.S.Venkatesan MD 