When a patient has a suspected heart attack, do an ECG first. It immediately shows the heart's rhythm and condition. Other tests like chest X-rays and blood gases come later, but the ECG is what you need right away to diagnose an MI.
Patients suspected of having a myocardial infarction should undergo which initial diagnostic assessment, pulmonary function tests or PFTs, arterial blood gas analysis or ABGs, electrocardiogram or ECGs or chest X ray. Now, anytime we look at an NCLEX cell question, we want to make sure we know what it's talking about. So here it's talking about patient suspected of having a myocardial infarction. So that's a heart attack. And what diagnostic test are we looking for? So with an mi, any patient that is suspected of having a heart attack should immediately undergo an ecg. Now, this is going to tell us their cardiac rhythm, tell us more about how their heart is doing. And so the other options, PFTs, ABGs, and chest x rays, some of those might be done, but not initially. This is asking for the initial diagnostic assessment for an empty.
