CLINICAL AND ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS ON INVERSION AND OTHER ANOMALIES OF THE P WAVE

Abstract

Interest regarding the diagnostic and prognostic significance of inversion and other anomalies of the P wave of the human electrocardiogram continues to grow. Much of this interest centers around the problem of interpretation. Likewise, the frequency of this finding seems to increase, although this is probably the result of attention being focused on it. During the past six months, approximately three hundred curves have been taken in the electrocardiographic laboratory of the Michael Reese Hospital, of which fully 20 per cent. have shown inversion of the P wave, usually in Lead III. In view of this frequency, and because exact knowledge regarding its significance is meager, it seemed worth while to analyze the curves showing this phenomenon and summarize the findings thus obtained. It is generally accepted that the physiologic auricular complex—P — is an upright wave which results from auricular systole and "expresses the origin of the heart beat