New Basic Concepts in Electrocardiography: The Ventricular Gradient

Abstract

CLINICAL, anatomical and experimental research have all collaborated to make electrocardiography indispensable for the clinician. The nature and origin of the various irregularities of the heart rhythm can be diagnosed with accuracy. Since chest leads have been introduced, one can get detailed diagnoses of heart muscle lesions, such as result from an occlusion of the arteries supplying the heart muscle. Similarly, we are able to locate lesions within the specific nervous system of the heart known as the bundle of His and its branches. It is even possible to diagnose toxic changes so small as to escape the methods of the pathologist. An important advance has more recently been achieved by the introduction of a new basic concept by the American workers, F. N. Wilson¹ and his school. This has found almost immediate practical application.