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Pulsus Alternans
A 46 year old male diagnosed with Kahler's disease, complains of fast progressive dyspnea. Physical examination reveals tachcardia (140 beats per minute). Upon measuring his blood pressure the nurse notices a pulsus paradoxus of 30 mm Mercury. Further examination shows decreased lung sounds on the right and dampened percussion on his back on both sides.
You can see the ECG which shows a tachcardia and a pulsus alternans, typical for pericarditis.
Echo of this patient at http://www.cardiologyrounds.com/video/swinging-heart
Source: Echopedia
Views: 863
Comment
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Comment by syed abid raza on December 1, 2010 at 2:52pm -
There is another term used in echo called Stoke volume alternans seen in dilated cardiomyopathy.
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Comment by Abdul Razek Abdul Lateef Maaty on September 18, 2010 at 1:12pm -
What is seen in this tracing is electrical alternans since pulsus alternans is a clinical terminology.
Pulsus alternans, bilateral basal rales and S3 represent the three death rattles of advanced LV failure but electrical alternans is an ECG sign of massive pericardial effision with swinging heart. It could be seen also in some cases of SVT.
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