Question
How can you determine artifact versus an abnormal rhythm on an ECG?
Answer
That is a very good question. For the most part, artifact is a manifestation that has everything jumbled together in a hashy presentation. If it is ventricular fibrillation, which is our real concern, we want to differentiate between artifact and perhaps a pattern of ventricular fibrillation. You need to look at the closeness of the proximity of the hash. The best way to tell is if it looks hashy in the sense that it is all over the place and it looks more like an EMG pattern, (where everything is crammed together as it would be in screen fill), then you probably have artifact. However, if the pattern is more rhythmic, in the sense not that one would happen in the same time zone as another, but the morphology is better formed, then you are probably talking tachycardia or fibrillation.
