Wikinventia — Atlas of discoveries and inventions · Industrial Age

First clinical human electrocardiogram — Willem Einthoven

1905 AD · Transmission: Global
MedicineInventionDutch

Willem Einthoven, after completing in 1901 the development of a string galvanometer far more sensitive than Ader's (whom he explicitly cites in his 1901 paper 'Un nouveau galvanomètre'), achieves on 22 March 1905 the first successful clinical recording of a human electrocardiogram at the Academic Hospital in Leiden. The instrument weighed 270 kg and required five people to operate; the patient's limbs were immersed in buckets of salt water as electrodes. It marks the beginning of electrocardiography as a clinical diagnostic tool.

InstitutionAcademic Hospital Leiden / Leiden University
Historical regionNetherlands
Primary sourceEinthoven, W. — "Un nouveau galvanomètre", Archives Néerlandaises des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, 1901; clinical recording of 22 March 1905
Secondary sourceIEEE Engineering and Technology History Wiki — "Milestones: String Galvanometer, 1901-1905"; JACC — "Centennial of the string galvanometer and the electrocardiogram"
Original languageFrench/Dutch
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