Complete Heart-block, with Dissociation of the Action of the Auricles and Ventricles

Abstract

The ventricular rhythm differs from the auricular, firstly, on the occurrence of a ventricular extra-systole, and, secondly, in cases where there is allorhythmia due to depression of conductivity of the heart muscle. When conductivity is depressed, the contraction stimulus at regular or irregular intervals may be blocked at the auriculo-ventricular muscle bridge; so that whereas some stimuli induce both auricular and ventricular systole, others induce auricular systole alone, the ventricular systole being missed. That condition, incomplete heart-block, is of not infrequent occurrence in the human heart, and has been graphically recorded by Mackenzie (1), Finkelnburg (2), and other writers.