WEAKNESS AND FAILURE OF THE LEFT VENTRICLE WITHOUT FAILURE OF THE RIGHT VENTRICLE

Abstract

In the practice of medicine today, no more important condition is encountered or so often unrecognized as such as is weakness or congestive failure of the left ventricle without congestive failure of the right ventricle. I propose herewith to discuss as a definite clinical syndrome or entity features of left ventricular failure in man which permit its recognition and which demand appropriate treatment. My interest in this condition has been aroused in the past ten years by the observation of frequent instances of congestive heart failure, by special studies of my own,¹by the writings of certain others, and by the astonishing fact that so little attention has been paid by the English speaking world either in practice or in writing to this state of congestive failure of the left ventricle without congestive failure of the right ventricle. There has been this neglect not only by the medical profession