Difference between pulse and HR

Specialties CCU

Published

Hello all,

I am new to telemetry. Can someone explain how pulse could be higher than HR?

My patient was on tele monitoring, afib; HR in 80-100b/min; however, the pulse was 100-140b/min.

Thank you.

There are other issues that can cause a pulse to be high with a pulse oximeter. If they have an essential tremor or Parkinson's Disease and their hands are always shaking it is nearly impossible to get an accurate pulse from using a pulse oximeter. Essential Tremor, Parkison's and Cerebellar (among others) can also cause ECG artifact or the appearance of atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Furthermore, I must say, that it is not that easy to correctly identify a tremor induced ECG artifact.

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