Emergency Medicine Uganda: AfCEM Day One

Oh………… P, QRS, T

And you guessed right!!! I opted for the ECG pre-conference workshop. Too bad I couldnt attend all. Choices! choices!

But first, this morning’s adventure. I picked a blue taxi from my hotel to the conference venue, but somewhere between my Ugandan English, Ethiopian English and Amharic, the conference venue got “lost in translation”. I end up of all places at the UN Headquarters!!!

The taxi driver checked with the security at the gate and apparently I was in the right place. So, I get out of the taxi and the first thing I realize is THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT THE RIGHT PLACE. Everybody is in suits, ties, sleek hair pulled back and somber. The only thing I got right was my black top. The pre-conference jeans and sandals look hmmmm. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb.

To cut this not so funny story short AfCEM was not on that list. The taxi driver then decides it must be “the OAU” center. Okay, great!! Let’s go. All this time speaking Ugandan-Ethiopian-and Amharic. This time, however, the security were not as serious looking and even offered a “you poor thing” smile. I decide to go back to the beginning (my hotel) and the receptionist kindly gets the shuttle to VIP me to the conference site. The only thing missing was a siren. I get in late-tea break. Jeans, sneekers, sandles, backpacks, no ties, a few suits ( presenters no doubt) THIS IS DEFINITELY THE RIGHT PLACE!!

And now the real blog post:

ECG was exciting. See the list of topics for yourself:

Take home points I liked:

Treat the patient NOT the ECG

Learn the ECG. You cannot find something you are NOT looking for.

Thou shalt not ignore the diagnostic importance of the T wave.

And now for the Unexpected exciting:

1. What does the Normal ECG in an African Aptient look like. Ref: Katibi et al “Normal limits of ECG in Nigerians” published in the Journal of electrocardiography.

Dr. Mulinda Nyirenda gave a thought provoking presentation featuring this study, and its findings which question the applicability of Normal ECG findings in the Western population to African patients. The wonderful thing was that 62% of the study population was rural ( reflecting about 80% of a regular African country’s population). Read this entire study if you can. I intend to.
Errors and Technical issues. An exciting presentation by Dr. Richard Lynch on “when reading was done wrongly”” from wrong lead placement to a myriad of things that could go wrong. Including WRONG PATIENT NAMES on the ECG!!