Nick Mark, MD Nov 19, 2022

Here’s a fun ICU puzzle: what is causing this crazy spiking pattern on the ECG waveform of both an intra-aortic balloon pump & ICU monitor?

A #MedEd 🧵 on an important clinical artifact, medical pumps, & the triboelectric effect.

We’ll need to go back 2500 years to understand the cool physics behind this important effect! #FOAMed #FOAMcc #PhysicsInTheICU

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Show threadNick Mark, MD Nov 19, 2022

Before we get to the cool physics behind this important clinical artifact, what device could attached to the patient that’s causing these crazy spikes on the EKG channels?

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ECMO machine
9.7%
CRRT machine
29.9%
Impella
30.6%
Cell phone
29.9%
Poll ended at .
Show threadNephroguyNov 19, 2022
@nick I didn’t know about this! Thanks!!!
Show threadMatthew Sparks, MDNov 19, 2022
@Alexmeraz @nick never seen this even with 35+ machines going each day.
Show threadNephroguy
@Nephro_Sparks @nick I may have but perhaps didn’t recognize it because I didn’t know about it until today.
Nov 19, 2022 at 9:14pmWeb