BIPOLAR LEADS:     Leads which use one electrode as a negative pole and another electrode as a positive pole.

BIPOLAR PACING:     A cardiac pacing system in which the cathode (positive pole of the pacemaker circuit) is at the tip of the pacemaker wire and the anode (negative pole of the pacemaker circuit) is near the tip of the wire, just proximal to the cathode.

BRUGADA SYNDROME:     Autosomal dominant disorder characterized by a defective loss of function of cardiac sodium channels. -Increased risk for ventricular tachyarrhythmias, syncope and sudden cardiac death. -There are three (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3), however, only type 1 seems to have the increased risk of sudden cardiac death. -Type 1: -Increased risk […]

BUNDLE BRANCH BLOCK:     An electrical delay or blockage in the conduction pathway that sends impulses down the right or left side of the ventricles.   (See specific bundle branch blocks: Left bundle branch block, right bundle branch block, nonspecific intraventricular conduction delay, incomplete left bundle branch block, incomplete right bundle branch block).

CAMEL-HUMP WAVES:     See Osborn waves.

CAPTURE BEATS:     An atrial beat “captures” the ventricle in the midst of atrioventricular (AV) dissociation.

CHEST (PRECORDIAL) LEADS:     ECG leads place on the patient’s chest that demonstrate the cardiac vectors in the transverse or horizontal plane of the body. -Leads V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6.

CLOCKWISE ROTATION (LATE TRANSITION):     When determining the axis of the heart in the transverse (horizontal) plane, the point in which the QRS complex becomes isoelectric (transitions from negative to positive) occurs after lead V4. •If you were looking up at the heart from beneath, the heart appears to be rotated clockwise, making the […]

COMPENSATORY PAUSE:     A premature ventricular complex (PVC) occurs and interferes with the next sinus beat, but the timing of the sinus rhythm is not affected. There is a PVC, followed by a pause, but the next sinus beat, after the PVC, is on time and exactly 2 cycles past the previous sinus beat.