History and Term ECG (Electrocardiogram)
In 1787 Galvani was the first to discover the relationship between electrical currents and muscle contractions. In 1843 Carlo Matteucci detected that the heart’s activity is also based on electrical currents. The first graphic representation of this was made by E.J. Marey in 1876. The breakthrough came with the Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven who was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for the invention of the electrocardiography. The deflections and curve descriptions developed by him are still in use today. These deflections were amended by the American cardiologist Emanuel Goldberger on limb leads and by Frank Wilson on precordial leads. The electrocardiogram records the electrical activity of the heart. The heart is a muscular organ which beats in rhythm to pump the blood through the body. The signals that make the heart’s muscle fibres contract come from the sinoatrial node, which is the natural pacemaker of the heart. In an ECG test, the electrical impulses made while the hea