Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In pathology, that condition in which a dilated and enfeebled heart remains continuously filled with blood on account of the inability of the left ventricle to discharge more than a small part of its contents. Also called asystolism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physiol.) A weakening or cessation of the contractile power of the heart.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology, cardiology Absence of systole; failure of the heart to contract.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun absence of systole; failure of the ventricles of the heart to contract (usually caused by ventricular fibrillation) with consequent absence of the heart beat leading to oxygen lack and eventually to death

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

a- +‎ systole.

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Examples

  • Other patients with less dramatic multi-organ system abnormalities have died from sudden cardiac asystole during the intermediate state of colchicine poisoning. 3

    Colchicine Poisoning 2010

  • If you expose a heart to a strong electrical shock, it will momentarily stop - called asystole (the disaster equivalent of 'bottoming out'), and then usually restart itself (the 'self-jump-start' process).

    ESCAPE FIRES Maggie Jochild 2007

  • At that time he went into an asystole rhythm which is flat line.

    CNN Transcript Nov 26, 2009 2009

  • At that time he went into an asystole rhythm which is flat line.

    CNN Transcript Oct 18, 2009 2009

  • At that time he went into an asystole rhythm which is flat line.

    CNN Transcript Oct 17, 2009 2009

  • If an AED is applied and reads asystole (or some other non shock-able rhythm) it will (correctly) not fire.

    Wanted: Nurses for American Airlines Mother Jones RN 2008

  • To wait until the last agonal breath though the monitor is asystole.

    Titrate until comfortable doyle 2008

  • The patient was in asystole -- which means no electrical output from the heart -- but the code team labored mightily, with CPR and everything else they do, and it worked.

    Archive 2006-10-01 Susan Palwick 2006

  • Once the decision to give ECT has been made and a starting date set, standard orders for the procedure should include treatment days and starting times, a prohibition against eating or drinking the day of treatment to avoid vomiting and aspiration, and atropine (0.6-1.0 mg IV) or glycopyrolate (0.2-0.4 mg IV) to be given immediately before treatment to minimize the risk of vagally mediated brady-rhythmias or asystole and to reduce bronchial secretions.

    The Neuropsychiatric Guide to Modern Everyday Psychiatry Michael Alan Taylor 1993

  • Ventricular Tachycardia VT is an abnormal rapid heartbeat, which can be life-threatening because it may lead to ventricular fibrillation, asystole, and sudden cardiac death.

    unknown title 2011

Comments

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  • Like the word intubate, this makes me think of any given episode of E.R.

    July 15, 2009