Affiliation:
1. From The Department of Internal Medicine and the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Piedmont Hospital, and the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Ga.
Abstract
Abstract
—Using an isolated frog heart preparation with ligatures around the atria, Luigi Luciani, an Italian physiologist working in 1873 in Carl Ludwig’s famous laboratory in Leipzig, was the first to demonstrate cardiac group beating, which he named periodic rhythm. He attributed this to increased resistance to impulse propagation between the atria and the ventricle. Karel F. Wenckebach, in his 1899 landmark report of group beating in a patient in which he also used pulse tracings, credited Luciani with this discovery. Wenckebach referred to the phenomena as “Luciani periods.” With the advent of electrocardiography in the early 20th century, this form of group beating became known as Wenckebach periodicity and then as Mobitz type I atrioventricular block. We reanalyzed Luciani’s original paper and pulse tracings, and we show that periodic rhythm does indeed meet the criteria of second-degree atrioventricular block as established by Wenckebach. We also reviewed the career of Luciani, who was an important investigator, outstanding teacher and mentor, and distinguished leader of 19th-century physiology. We conclude that Wenckebach still deserves to have his name eponymously attached to this type of atrioventricular block because he was the first to unravel the complicated relationship between atrial and ventricular conduction.
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Subject
Physiology (medical),Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Reference12 articles.
1. Luciani L. Human Physiology: Circulation and Respiration. Vol 1. London: Macmillan and Company; 1911:287–304. Available from the National Library of Medicine Bethesda Md.
2. Zanobio B Porta G. Luciani Luigi. In: Gillespie CC ed. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol 8. New York: Scribner; 1973:535–536.
3. Baglioni S. Luigi Luciani. In: Mieli A ed. Gli scienziati italiani dall’ inizio del medio evo ai giorni nostri. Rome: A. Nardecchia; 1921:336–343. Italian.
Cited by
15 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献