Amp Up Your Skills with the Certified EKG Technician (CET) Practice Exam 2026 – Pulse Your Way to Success!

When a patient moves during an EKG recording, it can lead to the appearance of somatic tremors on the EKG tracing. Somatic tremors are caused by muscle movements, which create sporadic electrical signals that manifest as irregularities in the waveform. This artifact typically appears as jagged, erratic lines that can obscure the true cardiac signals, making it difficult to interpret the EKG accurately.

In contrast, baseline wandering is usually associated with poor electrode placement or improper skin preparation rather than patient movement. Electrical interference, often caused by external electronic devices, manifests in a different form on the EKG, while electrode malfunction can lead to various types of artifacts but is not directly related to patient movement. Understanding how each type of artifact appears and the causes behind them is essential for accurately interpreting EKG results.