The 12 Leads of Christmas: V2

This article is the tenth in our latest series, The 12 Leads of Christmas, where each day we examine a new finding particular to an individual electrocardiographic lead. Lead V2 I love V2. It’s probably been my favorite lead to examine and ponder this past year. The cool thing is that it doesn’t seem all that special way at first. I mean, the precordial leads form what is essentially a smooth sigmoid curve across the chest; what could one lead tell us that’s so unique compared to its neighbors? As it turns out, in the right situation, V2 can hold some surprises when it comes to infarct localization. I see math everywhere. Don’t worry, this image doesn’t have any real purpose; it just looks kinda cool if you’re into logistic functions. Image source. So what’s so special about V2? Well, despite being commonly depicted as a septal lead, it would be much better described as “mid-anterior.” The true mid-anterior area of the heart isn’t really well covered by the electrocardiogram, so every bit of insight we can get there is vital. First though, what is the mid-anterior wall? Most folks reading this article will be familiar with the anterior, septal, lateral, and inferior walls. This chart is from an old article on our site discussing contiguous leads. I’ve left the former address at the bottom as a testament to how far we’ve come; both in our understanding of electrocardiography and in our design of graphics. ...
Source: EMS 12-Lead - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: 12-Leads of Christmas Original Articles Vince DiGiulio Source Type: research