The Ecg Made Easy

Rating:
Summary: Goes right to the point!
Review: First of all, I would like to say this book saved me in my Clinical Medicine oral exam; I was asked every possible pattern, and it was in the book! one week before my exam I had the fortune of finding this book in the bookshelf of a bookshop. One good thing about this book is that it is read very quickly (and the cristal-clear language helps!), so it can save someone who needs urgently to get some solid ideas about ECG in the brain! The author simplifies the physics involved too much, so it may be hard to follow the line of thinking in case one doesn`t have strong foundations of cardiac electrophysiology...

Rating:
Summary: Not Good for Beginners
Review: I have taken a look at this book in store. It's good and fundamental. The downer is the book doesn't use arrows to actually point out abnormalites on the leads. That's why I rate it three.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent 1-sitting reading
Review: The book is very clearly written. The new edition (6th Edition) is printed on nice glossy paper in two-colours (helpful for ECGs). The book is very clearly written, and can be read in one sitting (several hours, unfortunately). The methods for reading ECGs are pretty good, and stresses the understanding of the underlying electrical conduction of the heart. The ordering of topics is well-thought out, starting with ECG introduction (placement of leads, what we are seeing, etc.) to conduction problems, to heart rhythms, to abnormalities in the P, QRS and T waves.

I think the book is as simple as it gets for ECGs. It doesn't mark the exact location of the arrhythmias, but if you are a medical/health professional (or student), it should be assumed that you must know something about the heart (and conduction) prior to learning how to read the ECG. It probably also assumes that you are reading the book somewhat in sequence/order, so you actually know what the author is talking about when he comments on each of the ECG print-outs. If you cannot follow the comments for each of the graph, it probably means that you have missed a good portion of the book.

There is a short section in the latest edition including 10 ECGs to test your own understanding. It's a bit less than ideal, but there is a companion book they are trying to sell...

There are two companion books for this book that look equally good (haven't read those). The ECG in Practice and 150 ECG Problems. All 3 books are sized correctly (small) and can be carried anywhere... making it excellent for reading anywhere!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for getting to grasps with basics of ECGs.
Review: This book is written for medical students, nurses, paramedics - anyone who may be involved in interpreting ECGs in clinical practice and whom might not have the best knowledge of physics. It teaches interpretation without necessarily understanding all the physics involved. It is only a little book, yet covers a suprising amount. It helped me to understand ECGs better for my third year MBChB exams.