Premature Beats – Veterinary ECG Quiz

Dog - Labrador (Recorded with Beecardia)

3 years • Female

Question

Which interpretation best fits this tracing?

Ventricular premature complexes

Atrial premature complexes

Atrial fibrillation

Sinus arrhythmia

Cat - DSH (Recorded with Beecardia)

7 years • Male • Recheck evaluation for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Question

Which rhythm diagnosis best fits this tracing?

Atrial premature complexes

Motion artifact

Ventricular premature complexes

Atrial fibrillation

Dog - American pitbull terrier cross (Recorded with Beecardia)

11 years • Male

Question

Is anything abnormal on this tracing, and if so what?

Atrial premature complexes

Normal sinus rhythm

Ventricular premature complexes

Atrial fibrillation

Dog - Mixed (Recorded with Beecardia)

11 years • Female

Question

Scanning through the recording, what is the longest grouping of consecutive ventricular ectopic beats?

Singlets - one VPC at a time

Couplets - two consecutive VPCs

Triplets - three consecutive VPCs

A run - four or more consecutive VPCs

Dog (Recorded with Beecardia)

Female

Question

How would you classify the premature beats seen on this tracing?

Atrial premature complexes

Sinus arrhythmia

Motion artifact

Ventricular premature complexes

Cat - Domestic Shorthair (Recorded with Beecardia)

14 years • Male • Advanced hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with severe left atrial enlargement and secondary congestive heart failure; a history of arrhythmia is also noted

Question

Given this cat's marked left atrial enlargement, which best describes the rhythm on this tracing?

Frequent atrial premature complexes

Atrial fibrillation

Sinus arrhythmia

Frequent ventricular premature complexes

Dog - Mixed (Recorded with Beecardia)

11 years • Female

Question

Which feature distinguishes a true ventricular ectopic beat from motion artifact on this tracing?

The early deflections all share an identical QRS shape from one event to the next

The underlying sinus QRS complexes march through the early deflections at their expected timing

Each early deflection carries a discrete wide QRS with its own opposite-polarity T wave

Coarse baseline noise runs through the complexes immediately before and after each early deflection

Dog (Recorded with Beecardia)

Male

Question

Which statement about the premature beats on this ECG is true?

A ventricular premature complex follows every sinus beat, producing a fixed bigeminy pattern.

The premature complexes are frequent and predominantly isolated, not alternating one-for-one with sinus beats.

The paired ventricular beats recorded here represent a sustained run of ventricular tachycardia.

The premature complexes vary in shape from beat to beat, indicating multiple ventricular ectopic foci.

Dog - Boxer (Recorded with Beecardia)

11 years • Female • Intermittent PU/PD, lethargy, and inappetence, with a recent seizure and an episode of collapse

Question

This dog has occasional ventricular premature complexes. Which tracing feature indicates they most likely arise from a single ventricular focus rather than multiple competing ectopic sites?

The ventricular premature complexes all share essentially the same QRS shape

The ventricular premature complexes vary in QRS shape from beat to beat

Each ventricular premature complex is preceded by a premature P wave

The ventricular premature complexes occur in fixed bigeminal pairs

Dog (Recorded with Beecardia)

7 years • Male • Sent for pre-op evaluation

Question

Does this tracing show any ectopic beat burden that should be flagged before anesthesia?

Frequent ventricular premature complexes occurring in couplets represent a high ectopic burden that warrants concern

Occasional atrial premature complexes are present but are incidental and do not warrant concern

Ventricular bigeminy is present, representing a sustained and clinically significant ectopic pattern

This is sinus tachycardia; no ectopic beats are present, so there is no burden to assess

Quiz: Premature Beats

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Quiz: Premature Beats

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