THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ELECTRIC CURRENTS GENERATED BY THE HEART ARE CONDUCTED AWAY

Abstract

Exps. on dogs to detn. the paths taken by the currents generated by the heart in different positions of the body showed a striking disparity in the electrical conductivity of the structures adjacent to the heart. The lungs and the large systemic and pulmonary vessels coming off from the heart were found poor conductors; the muscular structures of the chest wall, especially the diaphragm and posterior muscle mass, were good conductors. The paths by which the heart''s currents were carried away were altered in different body positions owing to the mobility of the heart. Evidence indicates that these data can be applied to man. Aberrations of the electrocardiogram, on the basis of this study, are the result largely of reorientation of the various regions of the heart with good and poor electrical conductors or of changes in the important conduction pathways adjacent to the heart. This work again calls into question the accuracy, even as a first approximation, of the modern versions of the Einthoven equilateral triangle concept. The interpretation of electrocardiograms on the basis of the paths actually taken by the electric currents, especially from the heart to adjacent structures, offers a simpler and more practical concept.