ECG Cheat Sheet!

The beginnings of this cheat sheet began when I was in medical school, when I read a book my resident senior lent me, ECG made simple. As an academic teaching attending now, I am still teaching EKGs through this one-page cheat sheet! See my other posts for more EKG tips and resources.

Download the one-page rapid interpretation ECG cheat sheet v5.2 here (last update 5/2018).

Features/Notes:

• ECG rapid view: It is organized roughly how one would typically read an ECG. EKG cheat sheet pdf hits the major points in the order that you might present to another doctor:
  • Rate
  • Rhythm
  • Axis deviation
  • Hypertrophy (atrial, ventricle)
  • Intervals (PR, QRS, QT), segments
  • Myocardial ischemia/infarction
• Many common things I look up are included (ie. interval lengths, QT lengths)
• In particular, I found many people confused about the criteria for diagnosing ischemia and infarction, Q waves, and T wave inversions. So I defined those and gave examples.
• Of note, many resources have different definitions/criteria to diagnose certain parts of the ECG (ie. LVH). I chose what appeared to be the most common and the easiest for myself to remember.
• Futura typeface for style and readability and because Wes Anderson is partial to it
• Half-fold design to fit a doctor’s white coat

Last updates:

• 7/3/2015: Added QTc prolongation lengths for males and females, changed some letter casing
• 9/23/2015: Added the definitions for STEMI and NSTEMI.
• 7/18/2016: Rearranged sections. Added R wave. Added RBB. Added sources.
• 5/24/2018: Updated QTc intervals

Sources:

• ECG tutorials on UpToDate (Basic principles of ECG analysis, Myocardial ischemia and infarction)
• Making Sense of the ECG by Houghton
• Pocket Medicine by Sabatine
• Third Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction by Thygesen et al
• lifeinthefastlane.com

Old versions:

• Old version v5.0 here.

AWESOME.