Cardiac Rhythms | Lessons and Practice Strips

Cardiac Rhythms and EKG OverviewStudy of a patient's cardiac rhythms using an EKG may indicate normal or abnormal conditions. Abnormal rhythms are called arrhythmia or sometimes, dysrhythmia. Arrhythmia is an abnormally slow or fast heart rate or an irregular cardiac rhythm. During a single heart beat, several electrical events occur. These events are part of an EKG tracing and are called P, Q, R, S, T and U.

The first movement of the ECG tracing (usually upwards) is the P wave, indicating electrical activity that triggers atrial contraction. The QRS complex indicates ventricular depolarization and contraction and are usually of greater amplitude than the P wave. The PR interval indicates the electrical signal traveling from the sinus node to the ventricles.

T wave is normally a smaller (than QRS) upwards waveform, indicating ventricular repolarization.

Our rhythm strips guide provides information on essential dysrhythmia categories:

For each cardiac rhythm category we provide one or more ECG tracings. A synopsis of the cardiac rhythm (dysrhythmia) is provided and electronic calipers can be used to study each tracing.

Learn about cardiac rhythms using these tools:

Each of these training methods is summarized below.

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Cardiac Rhythms | Lessons and Practice Strips