Practice Test GeeksCMC - Cardiac Medicine Certification Practice Test
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Cardiac Arrhythmia Management Flashcards

7 cards from real CMC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

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  1. A patient presents with a narrow-complex tachycardia at 160 bpm with regular rhythm and retrograde P waves. Which arrhythmia is most likely?

    Answer: Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT)

    AVNRT characteristically produces a narrow-complex regular tachycardia with retrograde P waves buried in or just after the QRS complex due to simultaneous atrial and ventricular activation.

  2. Which finding on a 12-lead ECG is most characteristic of Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome during sinus rhythm?

    Answer: Short PR interval with a delta wave

    WPW syndrome is characterized by a short PR interval (<120 ms) and a slurred upstroke of the QRS called a delta wave, caused by ventricular pre-excitation via the accessory pathway.

  3. A patient with symptomatic bradycardia due to complete heart block is hemodynamically unstable. What is the immediate treatment of choice?

    Answer: Transcutaneous pacing

    Transcutaneous pacing is the immediate stabilizing therapy for hemodynamically unstable complete heart block while preparing for transvenous pacing or definitive permanent pacemaker placement.

  4. On telemetry, you observe a regular rhythm at 75 bpm with no visible P waves and narrow QRS complexes. Which rhythm is most consistent with this pattern?

    Answer: Accelerated junctional rhythm

    Accelerated junctional rhythm originates in the AV junction and presents as a regular narrow-complex rhythm at 60-100 bpm with absent, retrograde, or buried P waves.

  5. Which medication is the first-line pharmacologic treatment for stable monomorphic ventricular tachycardia in a patient with preserved ejection fraction?

    Answer: Amiodarone IV

    IV amiodarone is the preferred antiarrhythmic for stable monomorphic ventricular tachycardia because it effectively terminates VT and is safe across a broad range of cardiac function.

  6. A patient develops torsades de pointes during ECG monitoring. Which electrolyte abnormality is most commonly associated with this arrhythmia?

    Answer: Hypomagnesemia

    Hypomagnesemia prolongs the QT interval and lowers the threshold for torsades de pointes; IV magnesium sulfate is both the diagnostic and therapeutic intervention of choice.

  7. Which feature best distinguishes atrial flutter from atrial fibrillation on an ECG?

    Answer: Sawtooth flutter waves at ~300 bpm in atrial flutter

    Atrial flutter is characterized by regular sawtooth-pattern flutter waves occurring at approximately 250-350 bpm (typically ~300 bpm), best seen in the inferior leads, distinguishing it from the irregularly irregular fibrillatory baseline of atrial fibrillation.