AFib vs atrial flutter on the monitor

Both rhythms running live on a simulated monitor, with the ECG and the pulse curves side by side: irregular with no P waves, or regular at about 150 with sawtooth waves.

Transcript

Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter are easy to mix up. Two things tell them apart: regularity, and the baseline between the beats.

This is atrial fibrillation. The beats come at random intervals, there are no P waves, and the pulse waves change height from beat to beat.

This is atrial flutter with 2:1 conduction. Regular, at about 150, with sawtooth flutter waves between the beats.

A regular narrow rhythm at almost exactly 150 should always make you think of flutter.

ECG strips of both are at patientmonitorsimulator.com.