Robert C. Taymor

Clinical evaluation of the ballistocardiogram: II. Heart disease—Hypertension, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction

Abstract 1. 1. Analysis of ballistocardiographic tracings has been made in a group of 135 subjects with known cardiac disease. 2. 2. In the patients with essential hypertension and hypertensive heart disease, only 2 were found to have a completely normal ballistocardiogram at rest. 3. 3. Seventy-five per cent of the angina patients with negative resting electrocardiograms (and positive exercise electrocardiogram tests) showed abnormal ballistocardiographic patterns at rest. Of 5 angina patients with normal resting ballistocardiograms, the ballistocardiogram in 4 became abnormal only after exercise. 4. 4. The ballistocardiogram was abnormal at rest in over 92 per cent of the patients with previous myocardial infarction. 5. 5. Preliminary confirmatory evidence of the valuable aid of the ballistocardiogram in everyday clinical practice is presented.

Clinical evaluation of the ballistocardiogram

Abstract 1. 1. The ballistocardiogram, as recorded by the photocell displacement apparatus (modified after Dock), was investigated in a consecutive group of eighty normal control subjects. 2. 2. In the series of normal subjects, the ballistocardiogram was found to be normal at rest in seventy, abnormal in seven, and borderline in three. The significance of these findings has been discussed. 3. 3. Of fifty-three normal controls with normal resting ballistocardiograms who were exercised, the ballistocardiogram in forty-eight remained normal after the double “2-step” test. A careful follow-up study of the normal subjects with abnormal ballistocardiograms will be made in order to determine the clinical implication of these findings. 4. 4. The unhinged photocell displacement ballistocardiogram apparatus was employed with a simple method for simultaneous recording of the electrocardiogram with the commonly employed single-channel cardiographic machines.

The dual displacement and velocity ballistocardiograph apparatus

Abstract 1. 1. A dual ballistocardiograph apparatus for recording simultaneous or successive displacement (photoelectric) and velocity (electromagnetic) ballistocardiograms is described. 2. 2. The technique for establishing reproducible standardized conditions for ballistocardiographic tracings is described; work is in progress on standardization of recording equipment. 3. 3. A respiratory filter (for photoelectric tracings) as well as simultaneous electrocardiograms may be utilized by a simple switch arrangement. 4. 4. Lateral and anteroposterior ballistocardiographic tracings, as well as the customary longitudinal ones, may be recorded with the new apparatus.

The Ballistocardiogram in Myocardial Infarction: A Study of One Hundred Cases

In the presence of previous myocardial infarction, the direct ballistocardiogram is abnormal in approximately 80 per cent of the cases. Following the coronary occlusion, a normal ballistocardiogram is relatively rare in patients with angina pectoris as compared with those who are asymptomatic. There is no correlation between the ballistocardiographic patterns and the persistence of electrocardiographic evidence of myocardial infarction. The prognostic significance of the ballistic findings reported will be determined by long-term follow-up studies.

The T loop in right bundle branch block: A vectorcardiographic study of 82 cases☆

ectorcardiographic studies of QRS loops in right bundle branch block (RBBB) have been reported by many authors, and the classic abnormalities are discussed in texts and symposium proceedings.l-6 The T loop in RBBB has received scant attention thus far, except for Chou and associates’g who reported the incidence of abnormal T loop wideness in 10 per cent of RBBB cases. The rotational characteristics of T loops in RBBB, as encountered in ischemic heart disease, in right ventricular enlargement, and in healthy persons have not been explored. The purpose of this investigation was to survey T-loop characteristics in a series of patients whose RBBB was of diverse etiology.