A Guide to Use of the Collection

Abstract

Each tracing in the Collection has been analyzed (rates and intervals, and orientation, duration, amplitude, and contour of P, QRS, and ST-T-U) and the findings documented and reassembled as an interpretation with three elements, mechanism, structure, and function, stated in the language of the history and physical examination, not in EKG jargon. Their usefulness depends on direct relevance to the three components of a diagnosis: topography, etiology, and manifestations. With so many parts, and so many ways to indicate most of them, no mutually exclusive classification is completely satisfactory. Fig. 3-1 and the list below, however, offer a framework for evaluation of the information in each. The QRS is the stable part of the ventricular complex, ST is intermediate, and T/U most sensitive; a “shift to the right” implies diminishing specificity, much as a “shift to the left” does in a white cell differential (43).* Use the index for cross references.