6 ECG, Arrhythmia, ST and QT Monitoring
137
How are Yellow Arrhythmia Alarms Indicated?
When a yellow arrhythmia alarm is generated, it triggers visual and audible indicators. Yellow
arrhythmia alarms are always set to latch visually for three minutes except HR High/Low alarms, if
configured to standard yellow. Depending on the alarm condition, audible and visual alarm indicators
will appear as follows:
If you silence a yellow arrhythmia alarm and the alarm condition still exists, the visual indicators
continue until the condition stops. You will get an alarm reminder every time the configured timeout
period has expired.
If you silence a yellow arrhythmia alarm and the alarm condition has stopped, the visual
indicators are immediately cleared. Silencing an alarm does not reset its timeout period, so you will not
get a realarm for the same condition or lower on the chain until the timeout expires.
Arrhythmia Alarm Chaining
When arrhythmia analysis is switched on, multiple alarm conditions may be present. Announcing all of
the detected alarm conditions would be confusing, and might hide a more serious condition. For this
reason, arrhythmia alarms are prioritized in three alarm "chains": PVC Alarms; Beat Detection Alarms,
and Rate Alarms.
Only the highest priority alarm condition in each chain is announced. Lower priority alarms in the
same chain will not be announced while an alarm is active or during the configured timeout period. If
alarm conditions of equal severity from different chains are detected, the alarm condition that occurred
most recently is announced.
See “ECG and Arrhythmia Alarm Overview” on page 123 for information on which alarms are
included in the different arrhythmia options. See “Arrhythmia Alarm Timeout Periods” on page 136
for an explanation of how alarm timeouts work.
Alarm Condition Example Short yellow alarm tone
sounds
Alarm message
displayed
Single alarm
instance
Non-Sustained
V-tach
when alarm condition is initially
detected
for 3 minutes (latching
time)
Continuous alarm
condition
PVCs/min HIGH when alarm condition is initially
detected and - as an alarm
reminder - every time the
configured timeout period has
expired
until the alarm
condition stops, plus a
maximum of three
minutes latching time
Same intermittent
alarm condition
Pair of PVCs each time the alarm condition is
detected, provided that the
configured timeout period has
expired
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