What could cause an ECG pulse rate and a pulse rate measure on the wrist to be different?

Question:

The ECG shows atrial fibrillation with 80 QRS/min. It is irregularly irregular. The pulse is listed a 174/min.

Answers:
I disagree with the above answers. Heart RATE and heart RHYTHM are separate things. You can have atrial fibrillation, which is an abnormal heart RHYTHM and the heart RATE can be fast (uncontrolled) as in when it is 174 or slow (controlled) as in when it is 80. It is possible for the heart rate and/or rhythm to flip back and forth between controlled and uncontrolled or afib and normal sinus rhythm.
The other issue is that the ECG and palpating the radial pulse are different ways of measuring how rapidly your heart is beating. Palpating the wrist performs this function by feeling the sensation of the mechanical ventricular contraction which is pushing the blood from the heart to the wrist radial artery. The ECG does this by measuring the number of times there is an R wave which corresponds to the electrical depolarization leading to mechanical ventricular contraction. So the ECG is an indirect measurement while palpation is a direct measurement.
Sometimes the heart rate can be so fast that there is not time for the ventricle to fill with blood so that when it contracts it will register an R wave on the ECG but because there is insufficient blood in the ventricle you may not feel the sensation of a pulse at the radial artery. This will result in the pulse number being low and the ECG number being high.
The converse is when because of the rapid irregularly irregular abnormal rhythm of atrial fibrillation, the ECG is unable to always accurately determine when there is an R wave and it will undercount them while the pulse at the wrist is giving a higher more accurate count.
This is a bit complex so the important things to understand are that treatment of atrial fibrillation begins with RATE control and once this is achieved, the RHYTHM often will convert to normal on its own. If it does not, then decisions can be made on how to address RHYTHM control.

Malfunction.

More Questions and Answers

The consumer health information on youqa.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.

What could cause an ECG pulse rate and a pulse rate measure on the wrist to be different?

Health Resources