Your 48-year-old patient is complaining of chest pain and palpitations. You attach the ECG monitor to reveal tachycardia at a rate of 110 beats per minute with frequent early beats. The early beats appear wide and bizarre, have a T wave that takes an opposite direction to the QRS complex and are not preceded by a P wave. As you watch the ECG monitor you note the beats are occurring "every other beat." This patient is experiencing:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The description of the early beats being wide and bizarre, not preceded by a P wave, and occurring "every other beat" is characteristic of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) occurring in a bigeminal pattern, hence the correct answer is bigeminal PVCs.

Your 48-Year-Old Patient Is Complaining of Chest Pain and Palpitations