Customer Reviews

Arrhythmia Recognition: The Art Of Interpretation

5 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Arrhythmia recognition is the toughest part of EKG interpretation. Most books that teach it do so by illustrating each arrhythmia with a strip or two, usually using ideal examples. This approach leaves the reader ill prepared to recognize the variations that crop up in practice. The philosophy of this book is "you can't really know an arrhythmia unless you see it over and over".
This book covers all the atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. Each brief but thorough chapter concisely explains the electrophysiology of the abnormal rhythm, well illustrated by copious full color graphics, and ends with a series of analyzed strips and EKGs that show the arrythmia in all its possible presentations. As an example, I've always had a problem with recognizing atrial flutter at 2:1 conduction (anybody can recognize the 'saw tooth' pattern at higher ratios). After reading the chapter on the subject, I had it down cold.
There are also quizzes and practice EKGs to drive home the skill, and the book has a corresponding Web site with further resources. Highly recommended.

This is by far the cream of the crop of ECG textbooks. Everything you could ever want to know about dysrhythmias is contained within this book. It is written in an intelligible fashion, with many great examples. There really is just no other ECG textbook like it.

If you've read Garcia and Holtz's The Art of Interpretation, you'll find yourself right at home with this book. While not broken down by skill level, it instead focuses on the general classes of arrhythmias. The structure of this book is more like a workbook, guiding you through the various classes of arrhythmias, completing each chapter with a short test. At the end of the book is a full blown rhythm test, not unlike those seen in Paramedic school.

If you work your way through this book and Garcia's companion 12-Lead book, you will quickly master electrocardiography. I highly recommend this book for all levels of providers both prehospital and inhospital.

This text is excellent for the beginner or novice to EKG. As a Paramedic I use the skills I learned through this book daily. It is not dry at all, has humorous comments, and it gives plenty of examples to sharpen your skills.

This book is a good buy for somebody who wants to learn about cardiology with having very little, if any experience with it. In the beginning it assumes that you already understand the basic anatomy of the cardiovascular system, but lightly reviews it anyways. If you're looking to fully learn the cardiovascular system, this book won't do that for you. It lightly covers some of the key points to get you through cardiology and that's about it. For the paramedic student, it provides what you will need to know. It does however, cover the electrical system of the heart very well. At first I thought the way the book was written was a little difficult. As you read it, it's reading as if there is a person sitting there talking to you about the topic. This was a little unconventional to me and initially it confused me a little bit on some topics, however, later in the book it makes things a lot easier to understand at time. I'm not all the way through the book yet but so far the information is very good and very detailed. Where most books will describe what the electrical impulses of the heart are doing, this book will compare it to something else to make it easier. That right there is what made many topics throughout cardiology clear to me. If you're looking for just a basic review on cardiology this is a great book to purhcase. It gives the paramedic student everything they need to know about cardiology, and then a little extra. It does keep referring to the next book in the series about 12-lead ECGs, however, I don't feel the need to purchase it as a paramedic student. This book includes plenty of practice strips where it makes you break down and measure out the rhythm to determine what it is and then gives you the answers later in the book and explains why the answers are what they are. All in all I think this is a great book. It has a unique way of explaining the topics and it works very well. I initially reviewed this book to be a 4 out of 5. I have since come back to up it to a perfect score because as I got further and further into the book, the book did a better and better job of explaining everything.

The product came in very poor condition with front cover torn in the middle and was repacked by the us postal service. Book condition inside was poor (pages wrinkled/bent/dog-eared/dirty) NOT "like-new" as falsely listed on AMAZON. Order was placed 01/12/2010. Book did not came until 2/08/2010, almost 4 weeks later!!! Very disappointed and will not be ordering from this seller or AMAZON again. I have ordered from other book sites and never had this happened when book came damaged and torn like this!