i hate cardio.

any other medical students wanna vent about **** cardiology
revising it rn and just about want to pull my hair off trying to get ecgs

Reply 1

starrystudy

if cardio was a person id run it over with a truck

Reply 2

Democracy

Original post by starrystudy

any other medical students wanna vent about **** cardiology
revising it rn and just about want to pull my hair off trying to get ecgs

Lol.

What year are you? Have you tried the ECG Made Easy?

Reply 3

replaythat

love CVS physiology and pharmacology -> ECG meh wasn't really assessed on it tbf. Maybe when we do cardio next year it will be a pain. Maybe this video might help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIZQRjkwV9Q

Reply 4

FutureMissMRCS

Hate cardio too. Think with ecgs just learn like learn what a.fib, atrial flutter, sinus tachycardia, left and right ventricular hypertrophy, left and right atrial hypertrophy, wolf parkinson white syndrome, left and right bundle branch block, STEMI, 1st degree heart block, 2nd degree block type 1 and 2,3rd degree block, hypo and hyperkalemia, ventricular ectopic, ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia torsades de pointed looks like-feel like those are like the patterns they want you to pick up on (might have missed something in the list?) Also most important learn what a normal ecg looks like. Also what like a normal pr interval is, interval of qrs complex etc. is important to know. I calculate rate by multiplying the number of qrs complexes in trace at the bottom that is 10 seconds long by 6. Also look at axis deviation.

Not a fan of cardio, absolutely hate murmurs. And trying to learn the pathophysiology of cardio conditions. Cardio and respiratory are my least favourite specialities.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 5

macpatgh-Sheldon

Original post by starrystudy

any other medical students wanna vent about **** cardiology
revising it rn and just about want to pull my hair off trying to get ecgs

@starrystudy

Hi apologies for such a late reply: just saw your post! You might have qualified by now, depending wahat year you were in 10 months ago.

CRUCIAL POINT: DO NOT TRY TO MEMORIZE CARDIO BLINDLY BY ROTE: INSTEAD THINK ABOUT WHY clinical features [symptoms + signs] are elicited on history + exam and why ECG, etc investigations show. what they do.

GENERAL CARDIO:
Work out e.g. for auscultation, why the sounds occur at certain stages of the cardiac cycle, both normal and e.g. murmurs, and examine many cardiac patients to reinforce this knowledge. If you think about what generates the 1st and 2nd sounds, then it will be easy to work out why e.g. an ejection systolic murmur occurs between the 1st and 2nd sounds i.e. during systole [between the closing of the AV valves and closing of the aortic + pulmonary valves i.e. when blood is being pumped out from the ventricles - then depending where the murmur is loudest, you will know whether it is due to aortic stenosis or pulmonary stenosis [the murmur of aortic stenosis is loudest over the 2nd right intercostal space, while that of PS is loudest over the 2nd left intercostal space [if you check a diagram of the anterior aspect of the heart you will see that the aorta crosses over the pulmonary artery near their origins hence paradox of left and right intercostal spaces].

In AS, due o the narrowing of the AV, LV systole is prolonged; hence the the aortic valve closes sl later than normal; this means that the aortic component of the 2nd heart sound [A2] occurs sl later than normal, so that the splitting of the 2nd sound during inspiration can be less pronounced [in PS, RV systole is prolonged so that P2 is delayed more than normal and the inspiratory split can be wider.

etc. etc. etc.

Some tips on ECG interpretation:-

REMEMBER THAT electrical activity coming towards any electrode produces an upward [positive] deflection on the ECG and vice versa.

It is quite easy if you approach it the right way i.e. learn about the notrmal ECG in the context of why it looks like it does and learning which aspect of the heart each lead "looks at", particularly with ref to diagram below for the unipolar and bipolar leads [I, II, III, aVL, aVF, aVR] and just remembering that [knowing the location of the electrodes] on the chest leads, V1-2 look at the right side, V5-6 look at he left side of the heart when viewing the chest from in front of the patient.

[this diagram is from my own book [I am the author] and I hereby give permission for any medical students on TSR to use it for learning purposes][.

Then e.g. [AND TO REMIND YOU DON't TRY TO JUST MEMORIZE] you will easily remember why ST elevation is seen e.g. in leads II, III and aVF [check diagram below - these leads look at the heart from below] in the early stages of inferior MI. In late stages [and permanently] Q waves are seen because the infarcted part of the heart acts as an "electrical window" so that the leads facing the infarct look at the wall opposite [past the "lumen"], which oc is transmitting impulses away from the electrodes hence negative deflection = Q wave.

etc etc etc.

M [won cardiology prize]