The diagnostic value of the electrocardiogram based on an analysis of 149 autopsy cases

During the course of the last two decades we have evolved a procedure of interpreting electrocardiograms which is based on our own experiences and those of others. We felt that the accuracy of our diagnosis of normality and abnormality in the electrocardiogram, as well as the specificity of the various patterns that we have come to recognize, should be subjected to critical analysis. Such an analysis can best be made, we believe, by comparing electrocardiographic diagnoses, judged independently, with post-mortem observations in a random series of autopsy cases. This should reveal the merits of the diagnostic criteria we have utilized, and thus demonstrate the accuracy and worth of these criteria. The following report deals with the results of such a study.     

Reversal in direction of the QRS complex of experimental right bundle-branch block with change in the heart's position

It can be demonstrated that the contour of experimentally produced right bundle-branch block is modified by changing the heart's position. The direction of QRS can be reversed in Leads I or III, or in both, by moving the heart's apex from left to right of the body's long axis, especially when the heart is at the same time rotated on its own long axis. This shift alone may change a seeming right to a seeming left bundle-branch block or vice versa, depending on whether the classical or Wilson's terminology is used, as is shown in the illustrations of this report. This last observation explains the apparent discrepancies between the electrocardiographic and the autopsy diagnosis of the branch involved in bundle-branch block.It is recommended that no attempt be made to designate the bundle-branch involved; instead in man all such cases should be called intraventricular block of the bundle-branch type.     

Statistischer Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Lungencarcinoms nach dem Sektionsmaterial des Heidelberger Pathologischen Instituts

Ohne Zusammenfassung überraschenderweise sehe ich mich gezwungen, auf die Arbeit von Wahl (über die Zunahme des Lungencarcinoms, Zeitschr. f. Krebsforsch.25, H. 4, S. 302, 1927),die zwar später als meine Arbeit eingegangen, aber bereits veröffentlicht ist, bei der Korrektur hinzuweisen. Wahl kommt im allgemeinen zu denselben Ergebnissen wie ich, insbesondere findet auch er einen Höhepunkt in der Zunahme des Lungencarcinoms im Jahre 1924. Bezüglich der Genese der Plattenepithelcarcinome wird die Grippe in ähnlicher Weise bewertet.