Willem einthoven—the father of electrocardiography

Me, Silverman

doi:10.1002/clc.4960151020

Cited by 19 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Meanwhile, in 1901, Willem Einthoven in Utrecht had introduced his string galvanometer, which recorded and measured the electricity of the heart. 25 In London from 1910 to 1915, Thomas Lewis applied the Einthoven electrocardiogram to the exposed heart to verify the location of the sinus node by its primary electrical negativity. He also traced its excitatory pathway throughout the atria and ventricles, thereby providing a confirmatory correlation of this complex electrical system and the answer to the question, Why does the heart beat?…”

Section: Arthur Keith Martin Flack and The Discovery Of The Sinoaurmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Does the Heart Beat?

2006

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Abstract-Why does the heart beat? This question-known as the myogenic versus neurogenic theory-dominated cardiac research in the 19th century. In 1839, Jan Evangelista Purkinje discovered gelatinous fibers in the ventricular subendocardium that he thought were muscular. Walter Gaskell, in 1886, demonstrated specialized muscle fibers joining the atria and ventricles that caused "block" when cut and found that the sinus venosus was the area of first excitation of the heart. By examining serial embryologic sections, Wilhelm His, Jr, showed that a connective tissue sheet became a bundle connecting the upper and lower cardiac chambers, the bundle of His. Sunao Tawara traced the atrioventricular (AV) bundle of His backward to find a compact node of fibers at the base of the atrial septum and forward where it connected with the bundles of cells discovered by Purkinje in 1839. Tawara concluded that this "AV connecting system" originated in the AV node, penetrated the septum as the His bundle, and then divided into left and right bundle branches that terminated in the Purkinje fibers. Martin Flack and Arthur Keith studied the conduction system of a mole and found a structure in the sinoauricular junction that histologically resembled the AV node. They felt that this was where "the dominating rhythm of the heart normally begins" and named it the sinoauricular node in 1907. The ECG of Einthoven soon brought a new understanding to the complex electrical system that makes the heart beat. In the second century, Claudius Galen observed that an excised, denervated heart continued to beat after isolation: "The heart, removed from the thorax, can be seen to move for a considerable time, . . . a definite indication that it does not need the nerves to perform its function." 5 William Harvey, in De Generatione Animalium (1651), stated that "the pulse has its origin in the blood. . .the cardiac auricle from which the pulsation starts, is excited by the blood." Albrecht von Haller, an experimental physiologist at the University of Göttingen, Germany, also postulated irritability of the heart muscle resulting from the intracardiac blood. On the basis of crushed spinal cord experiments in 1812, Cesar Legallois in France believed that the heartbeat was under nervous control. 2,3 In the 1830s and 1840s, the discovery of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves and ganglia inside and outside the heart, as well as the effect of galvanic stimulation on the nerves and heart, supported his nervous theory. 2,4 This ongoing, somewhat fevered, debate, arguing about whether the heartbeat was triggered by inherent excitation by the heart muscle itself or was due to an electrical stimulus from either external nervous or local ganglionic control, was known as the myogenic versus the neurogenic theory. 4 Ultimately, this physiological debate would be decided by anatomists who would discover the site of origin of the electrical impulse and its conducting pathway through the heart: first, the Purkinje fibers (1839); then, the bundle of His (1893); the...

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Section: Arthur Keith Martin Flack and The Discovery Of The Sinoaurmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Does the Heart Beat?

2006

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“…Electrocardiography [19][20][21][22][23][24] Willem Einthoven (Leiden, the Netherlands) was the founder of modern electrocardiography and must be credited with the recognition of its vast potential as a diagnostic and investigative tool. Einthoven, although a physician, was more of a physicist.…”

Section: Willem Einthoven (1860-1927): Father Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Centennial of Einthoven's First Recording of the Human Electrocardiogram with the String Galvanometer

Barold¹

2002

Pacing Clinical Electrophis

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“…The ECG signals could be measured as part of a screening regime that is aimed at stroke survivors, or they could be measured for symptom investigation, such as to increase our knowledge about palpitations. As such, ECG documents the electrical activity of the human heart by recording the heart polarization vector [9]. The signal is captured by placing electrodes on the human body via standardized measurement protocols.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Arrhythmia Detection Based on RR Intervals

Faust

Kareem

Ali³

et al. 2021

Diagnostics

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Abnormal heart rhythms, also known as arrhythmias, can be life-threatening. AFIB and AFL are examples of arrhythmia that affect a growing number of patients. This paper describes a method that can support clinicians during arrhythmia diagnosis. We propose a deep learning algorithm to discriminate AFIB, AFL, and NSR RR interval signals. The algorithm was designed with data from 4051 subjects. With 10-fold cross-validation, the algorithm achieved the following results: ACC = 99.98%, SEN = 100.00%, and SPE = 99.94%. These results are significant because they show that it is possible to automate arrhythmia detection in RR interval signals. Such a detection method makes economic sense because RR interval signals are cost-effective to measure, communicate, and process. Having such a cost-effective solution might lead to widespread long-term monitoring, which can help detecting arrhythmia earlier. Detection can lead to treatment, which improves outcomes for patients.

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Willem einthoven—the father of electrocardiography

Cited by 19 publications

References 10 publications

Why Does the Heart Beat?

Why Does the Heart Beat?

Centennial of Einthoven's First Recording of the Human Electrocardiogram with the String Galvanometer

Automated Arrhythmia Detection Based on RR Intervals

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