The Practice of Electrocardiography

In The Practice of Electrocardiography, a master practitioner offers an organized approach to the art of EKG interpretation. Moving beyond the traditional approaches of many books that stress technical skill and pattern recognition, Dr. Blake shows how the four measurements needed to examine a tracing (orientation, duration, amplitude, and contour of each component) may be used with consistency and medical rigor for distinguishing normal and abnormal EKG patterns.

A unique worksheet guides the analytic process item by item and clarifies the logic of each stage of interpretation, in the same way that a dissection manual leads the student in an anatomy course. The result is a method for interpreting the electrocardiogram that reveals the anatomy and physiology behind each waveform and illuminates the gray areas between normal and abnormal.

The Practice of Electrocardiography provides a firm foundation in the diagnostic methods and clinical application of electrocardiography, as well as an entry into the literature through an outstanding bibliography. It will enable medical and nursing students to analyze the tracings they encounter in day-to-day practice with confidence and real understanding. Practicing clinicians will also find fresh insights here, and there are sections for technicians and their supervisors, as well as for administrators and others charged with assessing competence in the field.

After a lifetime of teaching and practicing EKG production and interpretation, after seeing more than a million EKG tracings over the years, Dr. Blake has distilled in The Practice of Electrocardiography the essence of his art and understanding for all those who must record tracings, interpret them, or judge an interpretation written by someone else.