Customer Reviews

ECG's for the Emergency Physician 1

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've worked with Dr. Amal Mattu in the ER here at University of Maryland, and let me tell you his EKG rounds are always excellent learning experiences be they at 2AM or noon. The same can be said of the book. As a resident in Internal Medicine I always want to look at more EKGs and this book is aimed at the professional who wants to see good examples of the common EKG findings, and also the rarer things such as Brugada syndrome. Each EKG is paired with a short vignette and the answers are in the back.

The EKGs and interpretations are all first rate, and this text has the potential to be a superb learning guide. However the Kindle edition is severely flawed.

The Kindle edition EKGs are presented in one section and the interpretations many pages later. Why's that a problem? After reviewing an individual EKG, you have to aimlessly wander through the later book to find the appropriate interpretation. They're not linked in any way and you can't use Kindle search to find them. It's totally haphazard. Amazingly dumb!

This is a classic case of a lazy translation of "old" technology (a physical book) into new (Kindle). The author/publisher simply needs to put a link on each EKG to the interpretation and visa versa. That way you can see the EKG then instantly reference the interpretation.

Of course they could re-edit the whole book to put the interpretation on the page following individual EKGs, but the link method would be SO much simpler.

As a result, I would strongly recommend avoiding the Kindle edition until the above problem is fixed. Buy the paperback. That way you can keep a finger in the interpretation section while reviewing the EKGs.

This is the first Kindle text I've ever seen that's so vastly inferior to the physical text.

Over the last few years, I've looked at quite a few references about ECGs. Mattu's book is certainly one of a kind. Split into two sections, each with 100 12-leads, the text begins subtly and works towards increasing difficulty and complexity of the strips. Each strip includes but a single description of the patient e.g. "46 year old male complaining of left chest pressure." The reader can then form his own impression of the patient's condition, and then refer to the end matter for a detailed explanation of the actual diagnosis.

This is certainly a teaching book. In many cases, I found myself formulating a diagnosis only to read in the back, "This is commonly misdiagnosed as [my guess]" or "This can easily be mistaken for [also my guess.]"

Initially, I was not quite confident text was worth the trouble. It does, after all, simply present strip after strip, with commentary in the back. But the text is structured in such a way that the reader can build upon knowledge and apply past failures at diagnosis to each new strip. I found myself making fewer and fewer elemental mistakes and developing a more complete picture of differential diagnosis as I progressed through the book.

Purely in terms of it's presentation of uncommon variants to common rhythms, the text is well worth the price. I'm not an emergency physician. My interest is EMS and prehospital care. Regardless, I found great utility in this text.

I purchased this after watching a few of Dr Mattu's lectures. The Ecg are very instructive for a practicing emergency physician. Kindle formatting is horrible, as the readings from the Ecg (answers) aren't as easily found as in a physical book. It takes a big effort to see if you're reading them correctly and therefore limits the ebook's usefulness. I'd definitely recommend the content though.

I recommend readers purchase the paper version of this book. The way in which it was written, with many pages of ECGs followed by many pages of interpretations of those ECGs, makes it almost impossible to follow in an e-book format. If the publisher can either marry the descriptions with each ECG or add easy to follow hyperlinks between ECGs and they're descriptions, that might make the book more user friendly. I gave the e-book only two stars. I'm sure the hard copy warrants more.

The way to get better at reading EKG's is to practice, practice, and practice some more! Thus, Dr. Mattu's book is invaluable in providing a multitude of great cases to work with. The explanations are very clear and help build your understanding of EKG patterns in a stepwise manner.

I thought one particular strength are the illustrations in the "explanation" section. Often, with other practice ECG books, they just write out in words what you should be looking for. But Dr. Mattu's book provides examples for certain cases where illustrations help demonstrate the topic. (Example: One practice EKG strip shows LBBB. In the explanation section, they write out the criteria for LBBB. Additionally, they give extra pictures to demonstrate discordance versus concordance between ST segments and T wave morphology in LBBB). If I had read someone describe this phenomenon in words, it would have made it much harder to grasp the concept. Of course, not every explanation comes with an illustration.

This book is a nice way to get good self-studying on EKG's and I think it's an appropriate level for med students or residents looking for more experience and guidance in this topic.

ECG's for the Emergency Physician Volume 1 contains many great ECG tracings and explanations in a easily digestible format. I recommend this text to any paramedic wishing to improve their electrocardiography skills. However, this text is not well suited to individuals who are not comfortable with their 12-Lead interpretations. Once comfortable, paramedics will find this volume to be an excellent resource!

First of all shipping was free and prompt...yes! Okay overall there are 200 12 lead ECG's with patient case scenarios. Before I go any further this is from a practicing paramedics perspective I will do my best to think of everybody else. Ok back to the book. It doesnt give entire pmhx but includes just the basic pertinent stuff ie chief complaint or current conditions CHF, CP, SOB, HTN or whatever. Then comes all those weird looking lines? QRS complexes and isoelectric lines. If you haven't taken ACLS or something similar in cardiology this book wont help you very much. It is designed for the already practicing or proficient healthcare professional. As it says in the title ECG's for Physicians! Answers contain paragraphs of exactly what is going on and if you get confused as to why something is funky there are ref. to diagrams. Good book but if you wish for more of an introduction i recommend Bob Pages 12 lead EKGs made easy and Wahlraven Basic EKG's which contains a cd rom with 1000's of rhythms. 12 leads are a relative new introduction to prehospital medicine and require constant practice to remain proficient. For some reason 12 leads are still not a national registry requirement why? idk and about only basic information is expected ie infarction, bundlebranch, ischemia yadayadayada etc. If you have a chest pain patient and are relying on your lifepack 15, zoll, or god forbid a phillips to tell you what is going on you're a boob and you got a problem. Just remember you are smarter than the machine only you can find a preinfarction, bundlebranch block, PE, and arrhythmias. This is a good book to test your skills.It is not terribly time consuming and you can bring it with you to work or at home. i give it 4/5 it would be 5/5 if it had a cd-rom. I have not purchased the 2nd version so don't ask me what I think about it.

I liked this book. It has a bunch of EKGs each with a one sentence history and then an explanation/interpretation of the ECG in the back. If you're trying to figure out how to learn to interpet ECG, look elsewhere (ie Art of Interpretation by Garcia or The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need by Thaler). But if you're a resident like me and don't want to miss stuff (like PEs, lytes abnormalities, small ST elevations, anything with the intervals) this is a pretty nice book. Bascially, a lot of the ECGs are stuff that you've seen elsewhere but you don't always catch because you don't remember to look for them (like QT prolongation or Type 1 AV Block). Nice book, but not the only EKG book in my collection. Would recommend to fellow residents.

This is a great text to have. Is good for brushing up on your own ECG skills, and high quality images can be readily copied for pimping sessions on rounds.