PRAeCORDIAL BALLISTOCARDIOGRAPHY

Abstract
By use of a new method using the accelerometer (Elliott, R. V., R. G. Packard and D. T. Kyrazis. Circulation 9: 281, 1954), acceleration bcgs at selected areas of the precordium were studied in 20 healthy human subjects. The precordial bcg gave information about the sequence, direction and relative magnitude of the cardiovascular forces acting during the cardiac cycle and appeared to reflect the local forces in the heart superimposed upon the more general cardiovascular forces recorded in conventional ballistocardiography. Precordial ballistocardiography relates cardiovascular dynamic events to heart sounds, depicts graphically information about the forces responsible for precordial pulsation and may prove of value as an ancillary diagnostic aid in helping to assess the relative degree of stenosis and incompetence in valvular disease of the heart.