[100 years' of clinical electrocardiography]

In 1903 Willem Einthoven published in Pflügers Arch his classic article on the investigation of human electrocardiogram by his string galvanometer. Many historians of medicine, Einthoven also marked that publication as the beginning of clinical electrocardiography. Many investigators like Galvani, Manteucci, Kölliker, Müller, Lipmann, Waller, Ader, Einthoven, Lewis, Wilson and others participated in creation and development of electrocardiogram. From that time electrocardiogram quickly became, and has remained the most essential diagnostic laboratory tool in investigation of heart diseases. The aim of this article is to remind us of the beginning of this part of cardiology 100 years ago.

[Pacemaking in Cracow in years 1966-1980]

Permanent pacemaking, a new and effective bradycardia--treatment method, has appeared in the sixties. In Cracow the first emergency temporary stimulation by means of transvenously inserted intracardiac electrode was performed in 1966. Permanent technique of artificial pacing was introduced soon after. The number of pacemaker implantations grew successfully, obtaining 750 of the end of the seventies when the Institute of Cardiology of Nicolaus Copernicus Medical Academy was established. Assortment of implantable devices also became wider, including such rare constructions like nuclear pacemakers and an inductive coupled pacemaker.

The centennial of the Einthoven electrocardiogram

Recording of the electrocardiogram by string galvanometer evolved a century ago from wide-ranging advances in physiology, physics, and engineering. Although body surface recordings had been obtained prior to the work of Willem Einthoven, his ingenuity in mathematically correcting capillary electrometer tracings and incorporating recent advances in electromagnetism, recording technology, optics, and quartz chemistry into the new instrument led to a fundamental tool for the investigation of the heart. For his work, Einthoven received the Nobel Prize.

[History of atrial fibrillation]

The authors review the history of atrial fibrillation, the most frequent clinically observed cardiac arrhythmia. A French "clinicopathologist", Jean Baptist de Sénac (1693-1770), was the first who assumed a correlation between "rebellious palpitation" and a stenosis of the mitral valve. From an analysis of simultaneously recorded arterial and venous pressure curves, the Scottish Sir James Mackenzie (1853-1925) demonstrated that a presystolic a wave cannot be seen on the jugular phlebogram during "pulsus irregularis perpetuus". The first human ECG depicting atrial fibrillation was published by Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) in 1906. The proof of a direct connection between absolute arrhythmia and auricular fibrillation was established by two Viennese physicians, Rothberger and Winterberg. The major discoveries relating to the pathomechanism and the clinical features of atrial fibrillation in the 20(th) century stemmed from the scientific activities of Karel Frederik Wenckebach, Sir Thomas Lewis, Gordon Moe, and Maurits Allessie.

Willem Einthoven and the birth of clinical electrocardiography a hundred years ago

The first electrocardiogram (ECG) from the intact human heart was recorded with a mercury capillary electrometer by Augustus Waller in May 1887 at St. Mary's Hospital, London. The tracings were poor and exhibited only 2 distorted deflections. Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) who was professor of physiology at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, began his studies of the ECG with the mercury capillary electrometer, and improved its distortion mathematically so that he was finally able to register a good representation of the ECG before the beginning of the twentieth century. He later further improved ECG recordings with the introduction of a string galvanometer of his design. Einthoven published his first article about the string galvanometer in 1901, followed by a more detailed description in 1903 which included a report of ECGs taken with the new instrument. The year 2002 marks the centennial of Willem Einthoven's first recording of the ECG in a clinically applicable fashion with the string galvanometer. The clinical use of Einthoven's immobile equipment required transtelephonic transmission of the ECG from the physiology laboratory to the clinic at the Academic Hospital about a mile away as documented in the 1906 paper on the "télécardiogramme". This report contained a wealth of ECG patterns and arrhythmias. Einthoven developed a system of electrocardiographic standardization that continues to be used all over the world and introduced the triaxial bipolar system with 3 limb leads and thus established uniformity of the recording process. Einthoven also conceived the famous equilateral triangle with leads I, II, and III at its sides and the calculation of the electrical axis (in the frontal plane) depicted as a single vector with an arrow at the center of the triangle. Einthoven recognized the great potential importance of the ECG as a diagnostic and investigative tool and his achievements made him the founder of modern electrocardiography. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1924 (2 years after Waller's death) in physiology and medicine, "for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram."

[Pathways in the development of electrocardiography]

Electrocardiography celebrates hundred years of its existence. The historical article on the cornerstones of its development was written on request of the editorial board of Vnitrní lékarství (Internal Medicine) and the Czech Society of Internal Medicine. After summarizing the beginnings of the discovery of bioelectric current and attempts of its registration the author describes the construction of the string galvanometer by Willem Einthoven. In 1901 and 1903 he published the first findings on the application of electrocardiography in man. Therefore that years are considered the years when clinical electrocardiography was born. Next we deal with the development of lead systems and modern electrocardiographs, incl. the discovery of the Braun tube, the construction of monitors, vectorcardiography and spatiocardiography. The author summarizes the principles of rational interpretation of the surface electrocardiogram and analyzes further modifications such as the use of leads from the right hemithorax, oesophageal leads, stress electrocardiography. Classical surface electrocardiography is probably a completed discipline. It will remain also in future a basic auxiliary examination method in internal medicine and allied disciplines. Due to its importance however classical electrocardiographic examination should be shifted into primary care where it may be a great enrichment and acceleration of the diagnostic process. Further development of electrocardiology is focused on non-invasive and invasive examinations and in particular treatment of arrhythmias where surface electrocardiography will be also in future important as a reference signal for the time localization of electric potentials of the intracardial electrocardiogram and programmed electrical stimulation.

A history of atrial fibrillation

Vulpian in France and Hoff and Ludwing in Germany first studied atrial fibrillation in experimental animals. In clinical medicine, de Senac and others, first observed irregular and fast pulse. Hering in 1903 described "pulsus irregularis perpetuus" as a distinct arrhythmia. Hering believed, that this was an extrasystolic rhythm disturbance, while Cushny and Edmunds suggested atrial fibrillation as its cause. Mackenzie was another British author who played an important role in the clarification of atrial fibrillation, particularly after Cushny convinced him, that the so-called nodal rhythm was atrial fibrillation. Einthoven reported the first ECG of atrial fibrillation without recognizing its true nature. Finally in 1909 and 1910 Lewis in London and, Rothberger and Winterberg in Vienna established atrial fibrillation as a clinical entity.

[100 years' of ECG or 100 years' of excellence in recording the electrical activity of the human heart]

The authors present a brief history of high-standard records of the electric activity of the human heart. Its beginnings date back to 1892 when Willem Einthoven recorded the first electrocardiogram.

[The beginnings of electrocardiography at the Prague Medical School]

The authors describe the beginnings of development of electrocardiography at the Prague Medical Faculty of Charles-Ferdinand and Charles University resp. The first results of the new method came from the physiological laboratory of Ewald Karl Konstantin Hering (1834-1918), who contributed to electrocardiography by explaining the mechanism of atrial fibrillation and to Richard Hans Kahn (1876-1941) who was the first to publish electrocardiographic changes after temporary block of coronary artery blood flow in the dog. Clinical application and the promotion of electrocardiography in this country is among others in particular from Václav Libenský (1877-1938), Klement Weber (1890-1971) and Frantisek Herles (1900-1991) whose name became for half a century the synonym for electrocardiography.

Willem Einthoven--inventor of electrocardiography

Willem Einthoven, the inventor of the string galvanometer electrocardiograph, was born in the Dutch East Indies, studied medicine in Utrecht Holland, and became chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University of Leiden. In 1924 he was awarded the Nobel Price for physiology and medicine. Einthoven became interested in electrophysiology after Waller's demonstration of the human electrogram using Lippmann's capillary electrometer. Because of important limitations of this device, Einthoven decided to construct the string galvanometer to be used for physiological research and in clinical medicine. Einthoven's main achievements in electrophysiology were the description of the normal ECG, some physiological effects on the ECG, the three ECG leads and the triangle rule. In 1906 in cooperation with the university hospital, Einthoven demonstrated the clinical usefulness of the electrocardiograph.