Heart block and the breakdown of marriage

Hi,

Another little hiatus to blogging as I was on holiday! Coming back, I want to share an explanation of the different types of heart block using the breakdown of a marriage as a metaphor. I heard this explanation recently and want to share it with you mainly because I found it funny! 

Science stuff - heart block is a problem with the electrical conduction of the heart, which delays (or blocks) the normal signals progression through the heart muscle. Depending on the degree of this blockage you get different appearances on ECG, which are 'graded' into different types of heart block. Simplistically, the greater the level of heart block the more dangerous it is. Heart block is measured by the relation between the 'P' wave of the ECG and the 'QRS' complex of the ECG - see image below

P wave comes before QRS complex as shown here

The metaphor is a marriage and the washing up leading to the breakdown of this marriage.

Normal heart:

A good marriage with a slightly lazy husband. In this he sadly needs to be reminded to do the washing up every day. The P wave shows the wife having to remind him to do the washing up, and the QRS is him doing the washing up. At the early states of marriage he is good and does it every time promptly when asked. See normal ECG below:

Nice short regular spaces between P and QRS. Not much nagging needed!

First degree heart block:

Now comes the start of the marital breakdown. First degree heart block has a regularly prolonged period of time between the P and QRS waves. Here the hubby is getting a bit more lazy - every time he is nagged to do the washing up he delays it before doing it, perhaps leaving it overnight until the morning before doing it. This is due to poor conductivity of the electrical impulse in the heart slowing things down.

Look at those big gaps between the P and QRS. Leaving it to soak all night is not a valid excuse!

Second degree heart block - Mobitz type I (also known as Wenckebach): 

As things start getting worse in the marriage the husband now sometimes misses doing the washing up all together! In this situation the ECG shows a prolongation of the interval between the P wave and QRS complex each beat until it gets so long there is no QRS complex following the P wave at all. After this missed beat, the interval becomes short again and the process repeats. This is the husband becoming lazier and lazier, leaving the washing up longer and longer until he just cannot be bothered to do it. This obviously leads to an argument and then he has to buck up and he gets on with doing it properly again, but then becomes lazier and lazier until he misses another washing up. See ECG below

See the interval between P wave and QRS complex getting bigger until the whole QRS is missed, then repeating

Second degree heart block - Mobitz type II:

Here the husband just misses doing the washing up every so often because he is out of the house (with friends, with a mistress, we will never know). Here the interval between P wave and QRS complex is kept the same (perhaps due to guilt) but there is a regularly absent QRS complex. ECG is below

Intermittently the P wave is not followed by a QRS wave as it should be

Third degree heart block (complete heart block):

Here there is no association between the P wave and QRS complex at all - P waves are happening and QRS complexes are happening but they are not linked. The wife has become fed up with the husband and has left him - they are both doing their own washing up independent of one another in different houses.

Here you can see regular QRS but no relation to the P wave - some P waves fall before, after, or on other parts of the ECG.

That's the stages of heart block explained as though through marital breakdown. I thought it was quite funny and helpful to help remembering which is which. I hope you find them helpful too!