Obligatory medical device diagnostics.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG; recording of the electrical activity of the heart muscle)-indicates the conduction of excitation in the heart (subsequent abbreviations: see resting ECG below)
- Supraventricular extrasystole (SVES); origin: atrial myocardium/atrial muscles; typical characteristics:
- Extrasystole occurs earlier than the QRS complex that should actually be expected
- P wave deformed or absent
- PQ time shortened
- Ventricular complex (QRS) configured normally
- No compensatory pause
- Ventricular extrasystole (VES); origin: ventricular myocardium; typical characteristics:
- Widespread QRS complex with change in positional type; random or fixed pattern (e.g., bigeminal (each normal beat followed by 1 VES), trigeminal (each normal beat followed by 2 VES), couplets (2 VES following each other), volley (> 3 VES occurring in succession (= ventricular tachycardia if lasting longer than 30 seconds)).
- monomorphic VES
- Each VES looks the same (identical origin in the ventricle/cardiac chamber).
- polymorphic VES
- VES look different (different sites of origin in the ventricle).
- Right ventricular extrasystoles look left bundle branch block-like (see below “Intraventricular block”)
- Left ventricular extrasystoles look right bundle branch block-like (see “Intraventricular block” below)
- Supraventricular extrasystole (SVES); origin: atrial myocardium/atrial muscles; typical characteristics:
Optional medical device diagnostics – depending on the results of the history, physical examination, laboratory diagnostics and mandatory medical device diagnostics – for differential diagnostic clarification.
- Echocardiography (echo; cardiac ultrasound) – for suspected structural heart diseaseNote: reduced LV or RV systolic function (LV: left ventricle/ventricle; RV: right ventricle/ventricle), may be indicative of VES-related cardiomyopathy (myocardial disease).
- Long-term ECG – ECG applied over 24 hours to more accurately assess cardiac function within the day.