Quick basic review source to learn EKGs in 2 weeks?

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zeppelinpage4

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Hey guys, I have my medicine final exam (in house, not the shelf) in 2 weeks.

Is there any concise resource, book, or website that I could cover in 2 weeks? I'm also studying for the shelf (Uworld) and written final with my rotation. So, just something I can read and practice maybe a half hour each night.

From our EKG lectures this block and what I the syllabus says, I need to know the practical stuff and be able to identify patterns. I don't need to know the nitty gritty of vectors etc. Just, I'll be given an EKG of something like A-fib or flutter, or one of the heart blocks and I'll need to identify it.

I was thinking of getting Dubin's but that book looked really dense, and not something I could cover in 2 weeks on top of all my other studying and hours in the hospital.

Much appreciated!

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There's also another book that I've seen thrown around here and on other sites called "The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need". I haven't used it personally (currently on Psych) but I was going to run through it before medicine since I've heard good things about it.
 
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Is there any concise resource, book, or website that I could cover in 2 weeks? I'm also studying for the shelf (Uworld) and written final with my rotation. So, just something I can read and practice maybe a half hour each night.

From our EKG lectures this block and what I the syllabus says, I need to know the practical stuff and be able to identify patterns. I don't need to know the nitty gritty of vectors etc. Just, I'll be given an EKG of something like A-fib or flutter, or one of the heart blocks and I'll need to identify it.

I was thinking of getting Dubin's but that book looked really dense, and not something I could cover in 2 weeks on top of all my other studying and hours in the hospital.

You can cover Dubin really quickly. I doubt there's a book appropriate for a med student you can read as fast. If you just need to identify the bread-and-butter rhythms, you could probably even cover them once a day every day for the next two weeks.

I think there might be a chapter or two of Lilly's Pathophysiology of Heart Disease that hits a lot of the basics, but it's written at a much higher (and more difficult to digest) level.

And once you do have more time, please learn the correct way to figure out axis (Leads I and II), not Dubin's I and AvF method. You're missing 30 degrees of normal with that one. ;) Personal pet peeve.

There's also another book that I've seen thrown around here and on other sites called "The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need". I haven't used it personally (currently on Psych) but I was going to run through it before medicine since I've heard good things about it.

I haven't read it, but it's on my bookshelf. Looks way more involved, but if you had time to go through it, it would probably give you a more complete understanding than Dubin.
 
2nd Dubin. Easy and quick read.
 
bro you need to learn the basics
you can't just memorize some patterns and expect that you'll remember it as a resident

rate
rhythm
axis
p waves
pr interval
qrs
st segment
t waves

http://geekymedics.com/2011/02/28/how-to-read-an-ecg/

then you look at as many ecgs as possible and that's how you learn
don't know the basics? then you're going to miss heart blocks and stemis all over the place
you should know the vectors because it helps you read the ekg
1 and avl are lateral leads
2 3 avf are the inferior leads
v1-v6 are the antero, septal, lateral leads

it's not that hard or time consuming so I'm not sure why you're trying to breeze over something so important
 
Dubin. Longer book but it has huge print and lots of empty space and pictures.
 
Dubin's is not dense, it's just long. He repeats himself a lot in the text and it reminds me a little of the Kisspharm guy. You can definitely read it in 2 weeks.

There's also this site: http://www.learntheheart.com/ecg-review/ecg-interpretation-tutorial/introduction-to-the-ecg/. Not sure how good it is but one resident on the service was raving about it a couple weeks ago.

This is a very good site. It really walks you through the basics in an easy manner.
I'm a little biased since I work with the Attending who designed the site, but check it out and see what you think.

Another very good website is Life In The Fast Lane's ECG library:
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ecg-library/

Next source is Harvard's ECG Maven, lots of practice EKGs with difficulty rating:
http://ecg.bidmc.harvard.edu/maven/mavenmain.asp
 
There's also another book that I've seen thrown around here and on other sites called "The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need". I haven't used it personally (currently on Psych) but I was going to run through it before medicine since I've heard good things about it.
Used it during IM; worth its weight in gold!
Such an awesome book.
 
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