Practice Test GeeksCPEN - Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse Practice Test
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Cardiac Emergencies Flashcards

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

Read the first 7 Cardiac Emergencies flashcards as text

  1. A 14-year-old presents with chest pain, fever, and a friction rub. ECG shows diffuse ST elevation with PR depression in most leads. The most likely diagnosis is:

    Answer: Pericarditis

    Diffuse saddle-shaped ST elevation with PR depression in most leads, plus a friction rub, is the classic presentation of pericarditis.

  2. Beck's triad (hypotension, muffled heart sounds, distended neck veins) in a trauma patient suggests:

    Answer: Cardiac tamponade

    Beck's triad is the hallmark of cardiac tamponade, caused by fluid accumulation in the pericardial sac compressing the heart.

  3. The emergency bedside procedure to relieve cardiac tamponade is:

    Answer: Pericardiocentesis

    Pericardiocentesis (needle aspiration of pericardial fluid) rapidly relieves tamponade by decompressing the pericardial space.

  4. Which blood pressure finding is classic for cardiac tamponade?

    Answer: Pulsus paradoxus >10 mmHg

    Pulsus paradoxus (>10 mmHg drop in systolic BP with inspiration) occurs in tamponade due to exaggerated ventricular interdependence from pericardial pressure.

  5. A 9-year-old with known dilated cardiomyopathy presents with new-onset pulmonary edema. Which finding would indicate cardiogenic shock rather than isolated pulmonary edema?

    Answer: Altered mental status with cool mottled extremities

    Altered mental status with poor perfusion signs (cool, mottled extremities) indicates end-organ hypoperfusion, the defining feature of cardiogenic shock.

  6. A child post-cardiac surgery develops sudden hypotension, tachycardia, and JVD with equalization of right and left heart filling pressures. The nurse should suspect:

    Answer: Postoperative cardiac tamponade

    Equalization of diastolic pressures across cardiac chambers combined with hypotension post-cardiac surgery indicates postoperative tamponade from pericardial hemorrhage.

  7. Commotio cordis most commonly results from a blow to the chest during which cardiac cycle phase?

    Answer: T wave upstroke (vulnerable period of repolarization)

    Commotio cordis occurs when a blunt chest impact strikes during the vulnerable period of ventricular repolarization (T wave upstroke), triggering VF.