CARDIOMETRIC STUDIES ON CHILDREN

Abstract

Reports on persistent vagal disturbances of the heart mechanism in apparently normal persons with the exception of sinus arrythmia and bradycardia are exceedingly rare. A survey of the literature revealed only 3 cases of such disturbance.¹ In a recent study of the electrocardiographic variations of the healthy heart, electrocardiograms and stethograms were made on more than 2,400 apparently normal high school students. The following case of physiologic heart block of vagal origin was the only instance of such a disturbance which was observed. It occurred in a Negro boy who except for this abnormality was clinically normal and entirely free of any sense of physical ill-being or of symptoms which could be related either directly or indirectly to a condition of heart block. Observations made in this case are reported, compared with those of Levy^la and Marzahn^lb and discussed in the light of electrocardiographic changes in the