Einthoven: Willem

Einthoven, Willem (1860-1927) Nordic Physiologist Willem Einthoven was born on May 21, 1860, in Semarang on the island of Java, Indonesia, to Jacob Einthoven, an army medical officer in the Indies, and Louise M.M.C. de Vogel, daughter of the director of finance in the Indies. 

Measurement of electrical activity in the heart, now known as the electrocardiogram (ECG), was introduced about 75 years ago by Willem Einthoven. The ECG is simple to perform and is the most frequently used, least invasive, and cheapest cardiovascular test. ° It remains the procedure of first choice for evaluation of chest pain, dizziness, or syncope. In its simplest interpretation, the ECG characterizes rhythms and conduction abnormalities. However, the ECG also provides, by inference, information about the anatomy and structures of the heart, pathophysiologic changes, and hemodynamics of the CVD system. ECG abnormalities are often the earliest sign of adverse drug effects, ischemia, and electolyte abnormalities. 

Willem Einthoven (1860—1927), Dutch physician. Nohel prize laureate in medicine 1924 (on ECG). 

A Dutch physician named Willem Einifaoven in 1902 pnqx>sed a measurement convention where the ECG electrodes were placed on the limbs. At this position, the monitored electric activity waveshape is more reproducible from one individual to the next because they are in a relative far field to the heart where electric gradients are lower. Einthoven used electrodes placed on the right and left aims and left leg and made the assumption that the heart was at the electric center of a triangle defined by the electrodes. 

The three limb leads I, II and III combine to form the bipolar leads. By bipolar we mean that the lead has both a positive and negative pole. Willem Einthoven established this standardised lead system, which was named after him, called Einthoven s Triangle (Fig. 2.4). Different electrode positions were also tested but produced little or no measurable results in comparison. 

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