What Junctional Rhythm Looks Like on Your Watch ECG

Key Takeaways

Junctional Rhythm is an irregular heart rhythm where the electrical signal that initiates your heartbeat starts from your atrioventricular (AV) node or Bundle of His, instead of your sinus node where it normally starts.
To recognize Junctional Rhythm on your watch ECG, look for QRS Complexes without P Waves before them. Sometimes, P Waves may come after your QRS Complexes, or be completely dissociated from them. For clarity, we show visual examples of Junctional Rhythm on watch ECGs in this article.
While a Junctional Rhythm ECG itself is usually not a cause for concern, it can be an indicator of underlying conditions such as sinus node dysfunction, hypokalemia, cardiac surgery, inflammation, or certain medications. As always, contact your healthcare provider to rule out any harmful underlying conditions.

Junctional Rhythm is an irregular heart rhythm where the electrical signal that initiates your heartbeat starts from your atrioventricular (AV) node or Bundle of His, instead of your sinus node where it normally starts.
To recognize Junctional Rhythm on your watch ECG, look for QRS Complexes without P Waves before them. Sometimes, P Waves may come after your QRS Complexes, or be completely dissociated from them. For clarity, we show visual examples of Junctional Rhythm on watch ECGs in this article.
While a Junctional Rhythm ECG itself is usually not a cause for concern, it can be an indicator of underlying conditions such as sinus node dysfunction, hypokalemia, cardiac surgery, inflammation, or certain medications. As always, contact your healthcare provider to rule out any harmful underlying conditions.

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Introduction

Hello, heart hero. In your quest to identify that irregular heart rhythm you just felt, you may have come across the term Junctional Rhythm. With your trusty watch ECG now in hand, you may be wondering, "What does Junctional Rhythm look like on my watch ECG?" In this guide, we'll help you see Junctional Rhythm on your watch ECG. Let's dive in.

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What's Junctional Rhythm?

Before trying to identify Junctional Rhythm on your ECG, it's helpful to remind yourself what Junctional Rhythm actually is. (If you're confident in your Junctional Rhythm knowledge, though, skip on ahead to the next section for some visual examples of a Junctional Rhythm ECG).

To start, remember how your heart beats? It produces an electrical signal, which squeezes and unsqueezes your heart, which in turn pumps your blood to your lungs for oxygen and then out to the rest of your body.

Normally, your heart produces that electrical signal from your "sinus node" to generate a Normal Sinus Rhythm. Sometimes, however, that electrical signal starts from somewhere else in your heart, where it isn't supposed to. In the case of Junctional Rhythm, your heartbeats start in either your "atrioventricular (AV) node" or "Bundle of His" instead.

Types of Junctional Rhythm include:

Junctional Bradycardia: heart rate below 40 bpm
Junctional Escape Rhythm: heart rate of 40 to 60 bpm
Accelerated Junctional Rhythm: heart rate of 60 to 100 bpm
Junctional Tachycardia: heart rate above 100 bpm

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So What Does Junctional Rhythm Look Like on My Watch ECG?

To identify Junctional Rhythm on your ECG, look for these tell-tale signs:

QRS Complexes without P Waves before them.
Sometimes, the P Waves come after the QRS Complexes or are completely dissociated from them.
The heart rate is usually slow, under 60 bpm, though it can be faster.

For visual examples, take a look at Junctional Rhythm seen on Qaly members' watch ECGs.

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Here's Junctional Rhythm caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Notice the missing P Waves before the QRS Complexes.

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Here's Junctional Rhythm caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Here, notice that the heart rate exceeds 100 bpm, so you'd call this Junctional Tachycardia.

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Here's Junctional Rhythm caught on a Qaly member's Apple Watch ECG. Can you spot one of the tell-tale signs in the top-right of this image? Psst, it has to do with missing P Waves 🙂

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Is Junctional Rhythm a Cause for Concern?

A Junctional Rhythm ECG itself is often not a cause for concern, especially if you're healthy with no symptoms. However, causes my include:

Sinus Node Dysfunction.
Hypokalemia or low potassium.
Cardiac surgery.
Irritable or electrically over-active tissue near your AV node.
Acute inflammatory processes like Rheumatic Fever and Lyme Disease.
Drugs like beta-blockers and calcium blockers that cause Bradycardia.

As always, if you show signs of a potential Junctional Rhythm or if you're experiencing worsening symptoms, contact your healthcare provider as soon as possible to rule out the presence of harmful underlying conditions.

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Conclusion

Well, that just about wraps up our guide on what Junctional Rhythm looks like on your watch ECG. We hope this could be of some help to you.

If you still need help interpreting your ECGs, don't worry, we understand how scary and confusing it can be to experience irregular heartbeats. That's why we created the Qaly app for you and for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live with heart palpitations and abnormal heart rhythms. On the Qaly app, human experts will interpret your ECGs within minutes for clarity and peace of mind.

To get started with the Qaly app, grab the Qaly app from the App Store or Play Store today. If you have any more questions, or if you need our help in any other way, don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@qaly.co.

As always from the team at Qaly, stay heart healthy ❤️

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