Lead aVR, 1 of 12 electrocardiographic leads, is frequently ignored in clinical medicine. In fact, many clinicians refer to the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) as the 11-lead ECG, noting the commonly held belief that lead aVR rarely offers clinically useful information. In this report, we discuss the findings in lead aVR, which are potentially of value, including ST-segment elevation in the patient with acute coronary syndrome suggestive of left main coronary artery occlusion, PR-segment elevation in the patient with acute pericarditis, prominent R wave in the patient with significant tricyclic antidepressant poisoning, and ST-segment elevation in narrow complex tachycardia suggestive of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
aSchool of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
bDepartment of Emergency Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
cDepartment of Internal Medicine (Cardiology), University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA
dDepartment of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
eDepartment of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Corresponding author. Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
ABSTRACT