ECG interpretation - pioneers of the EKG
ECG interpretation - pioneers of the EKG
Before we start a serious study on the 12-channel EKG interpretation, we take a moment to pay for the first pioneers that have carried out pioneering research that have led to a modern 12-channel ECG.
In this article we will discuss Luigi Galvani, Kollicker and Mueller, Ludwig and Waller and finally Willem Einthoven.
Luigi Galvani (1737 - 1798)
This physicist and doctor lived in Bologna, Italy.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the relationship between the nerves and the muscles was not understood. In fact, it was not always obvious that the nerves were wearing electrical impulses to stimulate the muscles. It was not until 1790 that Luigi Galvani discovered this connection. In front of an audience of stunned scientists, he had detached frog legs dance by creating electrical current.
Rudolf von Kollicker (1817 - 1905)
Johannes Peter Müller (1801 - 1858)
Mueller was a German physiologist who studied at the University of Bonn. He later moved to the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he held the chair for anatomy and physiology. Kollicker was Swiss, but studied in Berlin as a student of Müller. Over 50 years after Galvani, in 1855, Kollicker and Mueller showed that the heart beat due to an electrical stimulus. They did this by placing electrodes over a beating heart and then combining the electrodes with detached frog legs. Every time the heart beat, the frog legs moved.
Augustus D. Waller (1856 - 1922)
Carl Friedrich Willem Ludwig (1816 - 1895)
Carl Ludwig was appointed professor of physiology at the University of Leipzig in 1865. Augustus Waller was his student. Waller studied medicine at Aberdeen University. He became a lecturer in physiology at St. Mary’s Hospital. He not only had a laboratory at home, but also his wife, children and pet bulldogs took part in his experiments. In 1887 he used a capillary electrometer to record the first electrocardiogram. He attached a photo film to a slowly moving toy train. However, he did not believe that this information would be useful in hospitals.
During this time tests were carried out by vivisection - surgery on the open heart on living animals. It was only in the 1880s that Ludwig and Waller showed that the electrical signal of the heart can be contacted not only through direct contact with the heart, but also by attaching electrodes on the skin.
Willem Einthoven (1860 - 1927)
Finally, in 1904 Willem Einthoven achieved the graphic representation of the electrical signals emanating from the heart. For his invention, the electrocardiogram, he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1924. Einthoven was a Dutch doctor and physiologist. He studied at the University of Utrecht and became a professor at the University of Leiden in 1886. Its original machine needed 5 people to operate and weighed 500 lb. He called the deflections he saw with the letters P, Q, R, S, and T. He also showed that this device can be used to diagnose heart.In this first EKG, only extremity dissections were used. Only later in the 20th century the breast leaderships were added to create the 12-channel ECG.
When studying EKG interpretation,think of these pioneers who have made this critical measurement possible.
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This article arises from an idea, found somewhere in the world in an international article. Translated and newly written.