Assessment of Electrocardiography Knowledge Among Doctors Working in Emergency Department

OpenAlex İngilizce

Introduction: Electrocardiography (ECG) is an indispensable method for fast and reliable cardiac assessment in emergency departments.Physicians should have proper knowledge of ECG for accurate patient management.The aim of this study was to evaluate the ECG knowledge of emergency medicine physicians.Methods: General practitioners (GPs), emergency residents (ERs), emergency physicians (EPs) and cardiology physicians interpreted a total of 40 ECG samples in non-cardiac pathologies, arrhythmias, conduction disorders, and myocardial infarctions.Results: A total of 178 physicians participated in the study -27.5% of participants were ERs, 24.7% were GPs, 24.2% were EPs, and 23.6% were cardiologists.The general practitioners had the lowest success in ECG interpretation.Cardiologists were more successful in ECG interpretations of arrhythmias (A) and conduction delays (CD) than GPs, ERs and EPs (pA<0.001,pCD<0.001;pA<0.001,pCD<0.001;pA<0.001,pCD=0.006respectively).On the myocardial infarction ECGs, they were more successful than GPs and ERs but there was no statistically significant difference between cardiologists and EPs (p<0.001,p=0.001 and p=1.000 respectively).There was no significant difference between EPs, ERs and cardiologists in ECGs for noncardiac causes.Conclusion: ECG knowledge level of general practitioners in emergency department was found to be insufficient.ECG knowledge of the physicians should be improved starting from medical school and continuously updated with in-service training during their professional careers in emergency departments.