De Winter T waves on a 12-lead ECG

Upsloping ST depression of more than 1 mm at the J point in the chest leads, running into tall, symmetric T waves, with no ST elevation there and slight ST elevation in aVR.

What to look for

An acute occlusion of the left anterior descending artery (proximal to the first diagonal, in LITFL's examples) that shows no ST elevation in the chest leads. Instead you see upsloping ST depression of more than 1 mm at the J point across the chest leads, running into tall, prominent, symmetric T waves, and 0.5-1 mm of ST elevation in aVR. It shows up in about 2% of acute LAD occlusions. It's a STEMI equivalent: these patients need immediate reperfusion, the same as a STEMI, and typical STEMI changes may come before or after it. No ST elevation doesn't mean no occlusion.

Examples

Each is a standard 12-lead: 2.5 seconds of each lead in four columns, with 10 seconds of lead II along the bottom, drawn to scale (25 mm a second, 10 mm a millivolt). The measurements are under each one.

Example 1 · 12-lead · 10 seconds
IaVRV1V4IIaVLV2V5IIIaVFV3V6II25 mm/s · 10 mm/mV
Rate
71/min
Rhythm
RegularSinus: upright in II, biphasic in V1, one before every QRS
PR
0.19 s
QRS
0.09 s, narrow
Axis
38°, normal
QTc
0.37 s
ST up
None
ST down
I, II, aVF, V1, V2, V3, V4, V5
T inverted
None (apart from aVR)
Also
Smaller ST elevation (under the STEMI cut-off) in aVR · Tall, narrow, peaked T waves across V2-V4
Example 2 · 12-lead · 10 seconds
IaVRV1V4IIaVLV2V5IIIaVFV3V6II25 mm/s · 10 mm/mV
Rate
73/min
Rhythm
RegularSinus: upright in II, biphasic in V1, one before every QRS
PR
0.13 s
QRS
0.08 s, narrow
Axis
57°, normal
QTc
0.41 s
ST up
None
ST down
I, II, aVF, V1, V2, V3, V4, V5
T inverted
None (apart from aVR)
Also
Smaller ST elevation (under the STEMI cut-off) in aVR

Don't confuse it with

The ECG tool in the app gives you a new 12-lead every time and walks you through reading it: rate, QRS, axis, then where the ST is up and down. It's part of the Paramedic level, and you can try 5 ECGs a day free.

Try the 12-lead drill

Where the criteria come from

Others in the STEMI and occlusion MI group