Surface 12-lead ECG remains in the 21st century, one of the diagnostic tools most extensively used in clinical practice. For the internist, the anaesthesiologist, the thoracic surgeon, the respirologist and the cardiologist, maintaining ECG interpretation skills is mandatory, as the ECG allows a rapid (and inexpensive) diagnosis of a large series of entities. The advances of new technologies have not replaced the ECG, which still is one of the most cost/effective tools in medicine. Several interventions (in the acute and chronic phases of a disease) are still guided by the proper analysis of the surface ECG.
We are delighted to call for submission in this new section (“ECG Pearls”) of the Journal of Thoracic Disease (see instructions for authors).
The new section is intended to review not only unusual cases but also frequent cases that can pose a diagnostic dilemma, and/or to review the application of useful algorithms to differentiate frequent arrhythmias providing the reader with the relevant clinical scenario where these conductions abnormalities could occur.