The Waves During Developmental Age

Abstract

In the various stages of development, the ECG changes constantly, pursued with cognitive anxiety by the cardiologist. It is a horizon slipping away in front of us, an ontology of waves that knows no end because when it ends, the ECG can no longer be recorded. The handwriting of the heart depends on position, relative mass of the ventricles, physique, thoracic deformity, lung inflation, pneumothorax, and impedance of tissues. Intracellular accumulations increase the potential and thus the amplitude of the waves on the paper, while extracellular accumulations or fibrosis depresses them. And so a newborn with a 21 g heart can generate a QRS complex as wide as that of an adult with a heart 10--15 times heavier; a young person with anorexia can show widespread micropotential typical of a devastating myocarditis; a massive myocardial hypertrophy with fibrosis can have lower potential than a heart fivefold less thick or heavy (Table 3.1). The entomologist recognizes the age of bees through sight and smell: the young bee is hairier and more colorful and emits different Nasonov pheromones from an adult bee. To infer the age of a child, we could choose lead V1, look at it, and smell it, leading to enlightening diagnostic inspirations. You need intuition, a nose, and fragrant pink paper is much better suited than an aseptic computer screen. In addition to V1, lead II is also a formidable lead due to dissection of the P wave at baseline and during arrhythmias, to the atrial and ventricular electrical axis calculation, and to the accurate estimation of the QT interval.