wandering atrial pacemaker characteristics

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Wandering Atrial Pacemaker

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Key features, clinical presentation, diagnostic evaluation, ongoing management.

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ESSENTIALS OF DIAGNOSIS

Progressive cyclic variation in P-wave morphology

Heart rate 60–100 bpm

Variation of P-wave morphology, P-P interval, and P-R interval

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

This rhythm is benign

This rhythm and multifocal atrial tachycardia are similar except for heart rate

The other possible explanation is that there is significant respiratory sinus arrhythmia, with uncovering of latent foci of pacemaker activity

Usually, it is associated with underlying lung disease

In the elderly, it may be a manifestation of sick sinus syndrome

In the young and athletic heart, it may represent enhanced vagal tone

SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS

Usually causes no symptoms and is incidentally discovered

Occasional patient may feel skipped beats

PHYSICAL EXAM FINDINGS

Variable S 1

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS

Multifocal atrial tachycardia (heart rate > 100 bpm)

Frequent premature atrial complexes and atrial bigeminy

LABORATORY TESTS

None specific

ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY

ECG to document rhythm

CARDIOLOGY REFERRAL

Not required

MEDICATIONS

No specific treatment

Monitor and treat the underlying cause, such as sick sinus syndrome or lung disease

DIET AND ACTIVITY

No restrictions

General healthy lifestyle

Once a year if sinus node abnormality is suspected; otherwise when symptoms arise

COMPLICATIONS

May progress to sick sinus syndrome

This condition by itself is benign

PRACTICE GUIDELINES

Indications for pacemaker:

– If part of sick sinus syndrome

– If associated with documented symptomatic bradycardia

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Wandering Atrial Pacemaker EKG Interpretation with Rhythm Strip

Ekg features, wandering atrial pacemaker ekg interpretation example.

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• Wandering atrial pacemaker
• 2 Clinical Features
• 3.1 Palpitations
• 4.2 Diagnosis
• 5 Management
• 6 Disposition
• 8 External Links
• 9 References
• Three or more ectopic foci within the atrial myocardium serve as the pacemaker
• Rate is less than 100bpm (in contrast to MAT )
• Is irregularly irregular therefore sometimes confused with atrial fibrillation and sinus arrhythmia
• Intrinsic cardiac or pulmonary disease
• Metabolic derangements
• Drug toxicity (including Digoxin )

Clinical Features

• Often seen in the extremes of age and in athletes
• Rarely causes symptoms

Differential Diagnosis

Palpitations.

• Narrow-complex tachycardias
• Wide-complex tachycardias
• Second Degree AV Block Type I (Wenckeback)
• Second Degree AV Block Type II
• Third Degree AV Block
• Premature atrial contraction
• Premature junctional contraction
• Premature ventricular contraction
• Sick sinus syndrome
• Acute coronary syndrome
• Cardiomyopathy
• Congenital heart disease
• Congestive heart failure (CHF)
• Mitral valve prolapse
• Pacemaker complication
• Pericarditis
• Myocarditis
• Valvular disease
• Panic attack
• Somatic Symptom Disorder
• Drugs of abuse (e.g. cocaine )
• Medications (e.g. digoxin , theophylline )
• Thyroid storm
• Pulmonary embolism
• Dehydration
• Pheochromocytoma

• ECG should show three distinct P wave morphologies with a ventricular rate <100bpm
• Rarely requires treatment

Disposition

• Outpatient management
• Multifocal atrial tachycardia
• Dysrhythmia

External Links

• Richard Cunningham
• fardis tavangary
• Ross Donaldson
• Privacy policy
• Disclaimers

Wandering Atrial Pacemaker ECG Interpretation #312

Description.

• Rhythms are often named according to the origin of the electrical activity in the heart or the structure where the problem is occurring.
• Wandering Atrial Pacemaker is aptly named due to the electrical impulses causing the atrial activity are moving or wandering.
• These changes in the locus of stimulation affect the morphology of the P waves.
• In Wandering Atrial Pacemaker ECG, you must observe at least three different shaped P waves. No other changes in the tracing may be observed. The rhythm may or may not be regular.
• The PR interval is often affected, but does not have to be.
• The bottom line, is you must observe at least three different shaped P waves.

Practice Strip

Analyze this tracing using the five steps of rhythm analysis.

• Rhythm: Irregular
• P wave: Changing Shapes (3 or more)
• PR interval: Variable
• Interpretation: Wandering Atrial Pacemaker

Authors and Reviewers

• ECG heart rhythm modules: Thomas O'Brien.
• ECG monitor simulation developer: Steve Collmann
• 12 Lead Course: Dr. Michael Mazzini, MD .
• Spanish language ECG: Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH
• Medical review: Dr. Jonathan Keroes, MD
• Medical review: Dr. Pedro Azevedo, MD, Cardiology
• Last Update: 11/8/2021
• Electrocardiography for Healthcare Professionals, 6th Edition Kathryn Booth and Thomas O'Brien ISBN10: 1265013470, ISBN13: 9781265013479 McGraw Hill, 2023
• Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, Sixth Edition Dale Dublin Cover Publishing Company
• EKG Reference Guide EKG.Academy
• 12 Lead EKG for Nurses: Simple Steps to Interpret Rhythms, Arrhythmias, Blocks, Hypertrophy, Infarcts, & Cardiac Drugs Aaron Reed Create Space Independent Publishing
• Heart Sounds and Murmurs: A Practical Guide with Audio CD-ROM 3rd Edition Elsevier-Health Sciences Division Barbara A. Erickson, PhD, RN, CCRN
• The Virtual Cardiac Patient: A Multimedia Guide to Heart Sounds, Murmurs, EKG Jonathan Keroes, David Lieberman Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin) ISBN-10: 0781784425; ISBN-13: 978-0781784429
• Project Semilla, UCLA Emergency Medicine, EKG Training Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH
• ECG Reference Guide PracticalClinicalSkills.com

This website provides professional medical education. For medical care contact your doctor. 2024 ©MedEdu LLC. All Rights Reserved. Terms & Conditions | About Us | Privacy | Email Us | 1

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Blog #200 — wandering pacemaker (vs mat).

There is no clinical information is available for the ECG and 2-lead rhythm strip shown below in  Figure-1 .

• HOW would you interpret this tracing?
• What treatment is likely to be needed? 

====================================

Editorial  Comment:

It is always challenging to interpret tracings without the benefit of clinical information. That said — this situation is common in clinical practice. My experience in this area derives from the 30 years during which I was charged with interpreting  all  ECGs ordered by 35 medical providers at a primary care clinic — as well periodic stints during which I interpreted hospital tracings without the benefit of any history. 

• The challenge lies with having to decide  which  tracings in the  “pile of ECGs to be interpreted”  were those for which I needed to pull the medical chart ( or call the provider ) because of ECG findings of immediate potential concern.
• Obvious time constraints made it impossible to pull the chart for each ECG that I was given to read ( I’d never get anything else done if I did so ).
• I therefore became well versed in the skill of limiting the charts that I would pull to those patients whose ECGs showed findings I thought were important  and  potentially indicative of an acute situation that may have been overlooked.

=====================================

MY Thoughts  on the ECG in Figure-1:

As always — systematic interpretation of  any  ECG should begin with assessing the cardiac rhythm. In general —  lead II  and  lead V1  are the 2  best  leads on a 12-lead tracing for assessing atrial activity — and we have the advantage in  Figure-1  of a  simultaneously-recorded  2-lead rhythm strip of both of these leads.  By the  Ps ,  Qs and  3R Approach:

• The rhythm in  Figure-1  is  clearly   irregular .
• The  QRS  complex is  narrow ( ie,  not  more than half a large box in duration = ≤0.10 second ) . 
• The rate  varies  from  50 /minute — to just under  100 /minute.
• More than 1 P wave morphology is present . That said — P waves  do  appear to be related to neighboring QRS complexes, because the PR interval for the P wave shapes that we see remains constant  ( See   Figure-2 ) .

MY Thoughts  on Figure-2:

There are 2 different P wave shapes in  Figure-2 .

• The tracing begins with  3  sinus  beats ( ie,  RED arrows highlight 3 similar-looking upright-in-lead-II P waves — all with the same PR interval ) .
• P wave shape then changes  for beats #4, 5 and 6  ( ie,  BLUE arrows highlighting an almost isoelectric, if not negative P wave with fixed PR interval ) .
• The atrial focus then shifts back , with return to sinus P waves for beats #7, 8, 9 and 10 (ie,  return of RED arrows highlighting similar-looking, upright P waves in lead II — albeit with variability in the R-R interval ).
• The rhythm in  Figure-2  concludes with a  slowing-down  of the ventricular rate, as  the 2nd atrial focus returns , in which the P wave is almost isoelectric (ie,  BLUE arrows for beats #11 and 12 ).

BOTTOM LINE  regarding  Figure-1:  The rhythm in  Figure-2  is most consistent with a  Wandering  Atrial  Pacemaker . This is because the change from one atrial site to the next occurs gradually over a period of several beats.

• PEARL:  The reason it is uncommon ( if not rare ) in clinical practice to see a wandering atrial pacemaker — is that most providers do not pay  long enough  attention to  beat-to-beat  change in P wave morphology needed to identify  gradual  shift between  at least  3 different atrial sites.

SUMMARY:  Review of the  KEY  features of wandering atrial pacemaker is the theme below for our  ECG  Media  Pearl #17 ( a 3:30 minute audio recording ).

• Written review of wandering pacemaker appears below in  Figure-3 .
• Review of  MAT  is covered in our  ECG Blog #199 .

Today’s   E CG  M edia   P EARL  # 17 ( 3:30 minutes   Audio )  —   What is a  Wandering  Atrial Pacemaker ( as opposed to MAT )?

A DDENDUM   ( 3/4/2021 ) :

I received the following note from  David Richley  regarding today’s tracing: “I think I would use different terminology to describe this because to me the atrial pacemaker doesn’t so much ‘wander’ as ‘jump’. I would describe this as sinus arrhythmia with junctional escape rhythm at 60-65/minute every time the sinus node discharge rate slows to below that rate. I interpret the escape beats as junctional rather than atrial, because athough the P waves, ( which are initially negative in II, aVF and V4-V6 — and positive in aVR ) precede the QRS — the PR segment is very short, suggesting an AV nodal origin. However, we describe this phenomenon — I do agree that it’s likely to be completely benign.

MY Thoughts:  Dave’s comment is one of the reasons why:  i )  The diagnosis of wandering pacemaker requires clear demonstration of shift in the atrial pacemaker in  at least  3 different sites. We  only  see 2 different sites here;  and ,  ii )  The diagnosis of wandering atrial pacemaker is  not  common. 

• It’s impossible to rule out Dave’s theory from the single tracing we have.
• That said — the BLUE arrow P wave site may or may not be of AV nodal origin ( you can see a similar, near-isoelectric P wave with short PR interval from a low atrial site ).
• I also considered the possibility of the BLUE arrow P waves representing junctional escape — but decided against it because the difference in R-R interval from what we see between beats #9-10  vs  what we see between beats #10-11 is  more  than what I’d expect based on the cadence of rate variation I see from beats #7-10.
• Bottom Line:  We both agree there is a shift in the pacemaker site in a rhythm that is likely to be benign. And, we both agree that additional monitoring would be needed for a definitive response.  THANK YOU Dave!

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The Wandering Atrial Pacemaker

Atypical wenckebach av block, can ecgs cause headaches, isorhythmic av dissociation with idioventricular rhythm, is this ventricular exit block.

Today, it is unusual to see an electrocardiograph (ECG) with the diagnosis of Wandering Atrial Pacemaker , but when we do, it is often incorrect. The last one I saw was a marked sinus arrhythmia with unifocal atrial ectopics and it is important to differentiate these two diagnoses as the treatment and prognosis are very different.

Wandering atrial pacemaker, as the name implies, is an irregular ECG rhythm which wanders from sinus to at least two other different atrial ectopic foci resulting in P waves with three different morphologies.

Here is an example:

The rate is slow and there are two atrial ectopic foci: crista terminalis (looks like the sinus P wave), low atrial (inverted P waves), and not surprisingly, atrial fusion beats with maybe more than one P wave morphology. Clearly, the atrium is very irritable, and therefore the rhythm is a precursor to atrial fibrillation. The term chaotic atrial mechanism is also used. Most examples of this rhythm are difficult to diagnose because the rhythm is faster than 100 bpm and hence is called multifocal atrial tachycardia .

It is easy to see how this rhythm can be confused with atrial fibrillation with an uncontrolled ventricular response. Indeed, an ECG performed soon after this Holter monitor recording showed atrial fibrillation, confirming the transient appearance and thus rarity of this rhythm.

In the past this ECG was seen with severe cor pulmonale, cyanosis and right heart disease. The uncontrolled atrial fibrillation in such a sick patient was often a terminal event.

Dr Harry Mond

About Assoc Prof Harry Mond

In 49+ years as a practicing cardiologist, Dr Harry Mond has published 260+ published manuscripts & books. A co-founder of CardioScan, he remains Medical Director and oversees 500K+ heart studies each year.

Download his full profile here.

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• Wandering atrial pacemaker

Term Hierarchy

• C R O G V Wandering atrial pacemaker

Professional guidelines

Recent clinical studies, clinical prediction guides.

Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia (MAT)

• Ed Burns and Robert Buttner
• Jun 4, 2021

Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia (MAT) Overview

• A rapid, irregular atrial rhythm arising from multiple ectopic foci within the atria.
• Most commonly seen in patients with severe COPD  or congestive heart failure.
• It is typically a transitional rhythm between frequent premature atrial complexes (PACs) and atrial flutter / fibrillation.

AKA “Chaotic atrial tachycardia”

Electrocardiographic Features

• Heart rate > 100 bpm (usually 100-150 bpm; may be as high as 250 bpm).
• Irregularly irregular rhythm with varying PP, PR and RR intervals.
• At least 3 distinct P-wave morphologies in the same lead.
• Isoelectric baseline between P-waves (i.e. no flutter waves).
• Absence of a single dominant atrial pacemaker (i.e. not just sinus rhythm with frequent PACs).
• Some P waves may be nonconducted; others may be aberrantly conducted to the ventricles.

There may be additional electrocardiographic features suggestive of COPD.

Clinical Relevance

• Usually occurs in seriously ill elderly patients with respiratory failure (e.g. exacerbation of COPD / CHF).
• Tends to resolve following treatment of the underlying disorder.
• The development of MAT during an acute illness is a poor prognostic sign, associated with a 60% in-hospital mortality and mean survival of just over a year. Death occurs due to the underlying illness; not the arrhythmia itself.

Arises due to a combination of factors that are present in hospitalised patients with acute-on-chronic respiratory failure:

• Right atrial dilatation (from cor pulmonale )
• Increased sympathetic drive
• Hypoxia and hypercarbia
• Beta-agonists
• Theophylline
• Electrolyte abnormalities: Hypokalaemia and hypomagnesaemia  (e.g. secondary to diuretics / beta-agonists)

The net result is increased atrial automaticity.

ECG Examples

Multifocal atrial tachycardia:

• Rapid irregular rhythm > 100 bpm.
• At least 3 distinctive P-wave morphologies (arrows).

MAT with additional features of COPD :

• Rapid, irregular rhythm with multiple P-wave morphologies (best seen in the rhythm strip).
• Right axis deviation, dominant R wave in V1 and deep S wave in V6 suggest right ventricular hypertrophy due to cor pulmonale. 

Related Topics

• The ECG in COPD
• Right atrial enlargement (P pulmonale)
• Right ventricular hypertrophy

Advanced Reading

• Wiesbauer F, Kühn P. ECG Mastery: Yellow Belt online course. Understand ECG basics. Medmastery
• Wiesbauer F, Kühn P. ECG Mastery: Blue Belt online course : Become an ECG expert. Medmastery
• Kühn P, Houghton A. ECG Mastery: Black Belt Workshop . Advanced ECG interpretation. Medmastery
• Rawshani A. Clinical ECG Interpretation ECG Waves
• Smith SW. Dr Smith’s ECG blog .
• Zimmerman FH. ECG Core Curriculum . 2023
• Mattu A, Berberian J, Brady WJ. Emergency ECGs: Case-Based Review and Interpretations , 2022
• Straus DG, Schocken DD. Marriott’s Practical Electrocardiography 13e, 2021
• Brady WJ, Lipinski MJ et al. Electrocardiogram in Clinical Medicine . 1e, 2020
• Mattu A, Tabas JA, Brady WJ. Electrocardiography in Emergency, Acute, and Critical Care . 2e, 2019
• Hampton J, Adlam D. The ECG Made Practical 7e, 2019
• Kühn P, Lang C, Wiesbauer F. ECG Mastery: The Simplest Way to Learn the ECG . 2015
• Grauer K. ECG Pocket Brain (Expanded) 6e, 2014
• Surawicz B, Knilans T. Chou’s Electrocardiography in Clinical Practice: Adult and Pediatric 6e, 2008
• Chan TC. ECG in Emergency Medicine and Acute Care 1e, 2004

LITFL Further Reading

• ECG Library Basics – Waves, Intervals, Segments and Clinical Interpretation
• ECG A to Z by diagnosis – ECG interpretation in clinical context
• ECG Exigency and Cardiovascular Curveball – ECG Clinical Cases
• 100 ECG Quiz – Self-assessment tool for examination practice
• ECG Reference SITES and BOOKS – the best of the rest

ECG LIBRARY

Emergency Physician in Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine in Sydney, Australia. He has a passion for ECG interpretation and medical education | ECG Library |

Robert Buttner

MBBS (UWA) CCPU (RCE, Biliary, DVT, E-FAST, AAA) Adult/Paediatric Emergency Medicine Advanced Trainee in Melbourne, Australia. Special interests in diagnostic and procedural ultrasound, medical education, and ECG interpretation. Editor-in-chief of the LITFL ECG Library . Twitter: @rob_buttner

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