Principles of Clinical Electrocardiography [antikvár]

It is the author's intention to present in this volume the basic concepts of electrocardiography and their clinical application. He realizes that material so presented must be simplifíed and that an exhaustive and detailed treatment of the subject matter to be covered will not be possible. Emphasis has been placed on the unipolar leads. To one who first learned electrocardiography by memorizing patterns in the bipolar standard leads and later followed the development of unipolar electrocardiography, the latter offers a more logical approach to the subject material. Vector analysis of the ECG offers an intelligent means of understanding the electrical potentials generated from the heart. There should be no major disagreement between vector and unipolar electrocardiographic analysis. Both are descriptive of the same phenomena, the former offering an evaluation of the electrical potentials as oriented in space and the latter as reflected in the resulting electrocardiographic pattern. The unitarian concept of atrial tachycardia and atrial flutter is continued. However, instead of considering both to be the result of repetitive ectopic atrial discharge, a reentry mechanism can explain both rhythms. The author cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that the ECG is a laboratory test only. Like all laboratory findings, an abnormal electrocardiographic tracing is significant only when interpreted in the light of clinical findings. Ideally, the person best qualified to interpret the ECG is the physician caring for the patient. The chapter on spatial vectorcardiography and corrected orthogonal lead systems is intended to give the reader an insight into this relatively new field and not as a comprehensive discussion of the subject. For the ninth edition, the section on pacemakers has been expanded. Discussions of the sick sinus syndrome, bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome, and accelerated idioventricular rhythm have been added. We are most gratified with the acceptance this Review has received among students and physicians both here and abroad. Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Polish translations are now available; French, Germán, Portuguese, and Turkish translations are in preparation.