Why is an ECG wave described as PQRS?

Impret-Sir | 13:59 Wed 24th Nov 2004 | Body & Soul

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If you understand this question you will know what I mean! the parts of an ECG are labelled as P, QRS, and T, I always wondered why these letters were chosen, was there a reason, or was it just four letters at random? Why not MNOP, or DEFG, or..........

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amarillis

I had only a vague notion of why it was so, but I found this website: http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/98/18/1937 and it explains it so much better than I can!

MikeC99

Because when these waves were first discovered, it was not known if any others would be found. Therefore rather than start labelling the waves "a, b, c, d, etc" it is better to start around the middle of the alphabet, then you have some spare letters either side in case you need them. This method of labelling waves in this way is not limited to the ecg.

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