Paucis Verbis: An approach to persistent tachycardia

Tachycardia is a common clinical occurrence in the ED. Most of the time the etiology can be discerned through the history and physical exam, but sometimes it cannot. This is problematic especially when we are about to discharge a patient home but his/her heart rate is still 115 beat/min. We can't send this patient home yet. Do we then have to admit them for work-up of persistent tachycardia?

Attached is a list of common causes of tachycardia in the ED, as well as potential diagnostic and therapeutic considerations. Rather than a shot-gun approach, a limited and thoughtful method works best.

Can you think of other potential causes?

You can download this PV card:  [MS Word] [PDF]

See other Paucis Verbis cards.

This useful PV card was made by one of our new star faculty members at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. David Thompson. Thanks, David!



As you may have noticed, I will be starting to include a QR code on each PV card to this blog site, since people have been asking where these cards are from. Commonly QR codes are used to embed contact information or a website address. If you don't have a QR reader for your phone, you should get one. It's only going to be getting more popular.

Here's the iTunes link for a free iPhone QR reader, and below is a short demonstration of a QR code which directs the user to a specific website.