Draw a normal ECG pattern. Label and explain the significance of its deflection waves.

Video transcript

Hi, everyone. Let's look at our next problem. It says atrial flutter is characterized on an E C G by a absence of P waves. B, Sawtooth shaped P waves, C inverted T waves or D widened QR S complexes. Well, if we think about what atrial flutter is that can help us get to our correct answer. In atrial flutter, you have multiple sites in the atria firing and more rapidly than usual. So what is the part of the E C G that reflects the contraction of the atria which would be stimulated by firing of the impulses in the atria? And that is the P wave that equals the atrial depolarization. So, if you have multiple firings in the atrium, you'd expect to see multiple P waves. And that leads us to choice B Sawtooth shaped P waves, you have multiple distinct P waves per QR S complex. The ATRIO sites are firing more rapidly than the ventricle is firing. Let's look at our other answer choices to see why they're not correct choice. A and absence of P waves would be more characteristic of atrial fibrillation. In this case, you have kind of crazy firing going on all over the place. So you don't see distinct P waves, you just see this sort of wavy baseline without any distinguishable P waves. And that usually comes with um irregular heartbeat. So you'd see your QR S uh in irregular intervals. But if that's not what we're looking for, we would expect to see distinct separate waves. These are sometimes called F waves or letter waves, choice C inverted T waves and the T wave represents the relaxation of the ventricle. It comes after the QR S complex. So that would not reflect um atrial firing. So choice C is not correct, this might reflect other abnormalities or cardiac conditions but not atrial flutter. And then finally, choice D widened Q QR S complexes, these would represent abnormalities in ventricular depolarization. So not our correct answer. As side note about that is of course, since the ventricle contraction is what pumps blood out into the body. A widening QR S complex is a big problem. It's a big danger sign and an emergency compared to atrial fibrillation uh which is not it, it's a problem but not as serious and emergent a problem as a widening cure s complex would be showing. So again, atrial flutter is characterized on an E C G by choice B, sawtooth shaped P waves. See you in the next video.