Any Difference?

Thank you! Working away on my ECG lecture.... :uhoh21:

I always thought that the difference was that in A tach, you could clearly see the p waves, and therefore you knew exactly where the focus was. In SVT, the p wave is lost amoungst the T wave, or it is unknown if it is a T or a P, so you didn't know exactly where the focus was and therefore generalized as supraventricular.

I also thought it was rate dependent. If it was >160 and narrow, then SVT.

I think what siri's just trying to say is all atrial tachy's are svt's but not all svt's are atrial tachy's......svt is in umbrella term of any arrythmia that originates in the atrium or av node....and different treatments can be used to differentiate each other.

i should say tachyarrhythmia before someone says av blocks also come from the av nodal pathways lol sorry

Right. But I hope that the EKG class still teaches the differences between all tachy rhythms.

I will just tell the nurse that her pt is tachy at 130, but if it is >160 I will say your pt is in SVT. I think it implies that the situation is a little more critical because of the higher rate.

Do you have the power point for ACLS EP?

Wonderful teaching tool for that class.

No I don't. Where can I obtain this resource?

Good point, cardiacRN2006 :balloons: . I am sure that Vicky is teaching the differences amongst the tachys. I can see where she was coming from with that question. :)

I am distinguishing the following for tachys:

Sinus tachycardia

Atrial (supraventricular) tachycardia

Atrial flutter

Atrial fibrillation

Junctional tachycardia

Ventricular tachycardia

This is in addition to NSR, sinus arrhythmia, SB, junctional rhythms, ectopic beats, heart blocks, v-fib, asystole, PEA, and paced rhythms. I am trying to keep this at a very basic level, since it is for ADN students. The education consultants from our state BON actually suggested we only teach NSR and the lethal dysrhythmias (asystole, PEA, v-tach, v-fib) and leave it at that :uhoh21: We decided not to follow this advice - We felt our students need much better preparation in ECG, since most med-surg floors have patients on telemetry. Many of our students also directly go to ICU floors and step downs as new grads.