Specifically, an acute coronary syndrome includes unstable angina, non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, and ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
For the purposes of this learning module, we will assume that all changes are new for the patient and thus represent an acute myocardial infarction.Īn acute coronary syndrome may include various clinical entities that involve some sort of ischemia or infarction. One of the complications with using ECG for myocardial infarction diagnosis is that it is sometimes difficult to determine which changes are new and which are old. Diagnosing an acute myocardial infarction by ECG is an important skill for healthcare professionals, mostly because of the stakes involved for the patient.