Abstract
Case PresentationWe present the case of a 74-year-old female patient who presented to the emergency department with lower extremity weakness found to have a fixed frequency square wave artifact in all leads of her electrocardiogram (ECG). After troubleshooting, faulty external cardiac monitor leads were identified as the cause of this unique artifact.DiscussionThe ECG is an important diagnostic tool for medical providers. Electrocardiogram artifacts are extremely common, and knowledge of artifacts is necessary to prevent inappropriate interpretation, diagnostic error, and unnecessary workup. Medical providers should have a low threshold for suspicion when ECG findings do not correlate with the patient’s chief complaint or history of present illness. They must also be familiar with the most frequent ECG artifact variants and be prepared to follow a stepwise approach to troubleshoot less frequent variants.
Highlights
Case Presentation: We present the case of a 74-year-old female patient who presented to the emergency department with lower extremity weakness found to have a fixed frequency square wave artifact in all leads of her electrocardiogram (ECG)
CASE PRESENTATION A 74-year-old female presented to the emergency department for progressive left leg weakness that had resulted in multiple falls
Studies of the effect of electromagnetic interference (EMI) on medical devices represent a large body of literature
Summary
University of Kansas Health System, Department of Emergency Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas. Case Presentation: We present the case of a 74-year-old female patient who presented to the emergency department with lower extremity weakness found to have a fixed frequency square wave artifact in all leads of her electrocardiogram (ECG). Faulty external cardiac monitor leads were identified as the cause of this unique artifact
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