Word: electrocardiographic
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Scientists have long known that there is some electrical activity in the body, and that a change in the normal action may be a warning of disease. The knowledge has been used to diagnose ailments of the heart (by electrocardiograph) and of the brain (by electroencephalograph). Could the same principle be applied to cancer...
...after the climb, Dr. Dennison Young, 36, greeted him with a cheery "How are you feeling?", nodded when the boy replied, "I'm pretty good, but my neck's still stiff." Once a month, to test Martin's heart, Dr. Young lugs a 30-lb. portable electrocardiograph up the stairs (the doctor grumbles good-naturedly that "they all seem to live at the very top or the very bottom...
...with scientific gadgetry. Emotional people who claim that "my heart skipped a beat," or "my heart stood still" are probably stating a literal fact. Last week Dr. Ian P. Stevenson of New York Hospital (and his associates) proved it by tracing the heart's action electrically on an electrocardiograph...
When the patients were hitched up to the electrocardiograph, the doctors deliberately stirred up their emotions. Examples: one patient developed a noticeable arrhythmia (irregular beating) when the doctor mentioned his in-laws; a woman patient's heart began skipping when the doctors referred to her illegitimate child; the same sort of extrasystoles (premature contractions of the heart) showed up on the electrocardiograph when they asked a 61-year-old spinster why she had never married...
Brain Tumor. Last winter, in the hospital, Dr. Brickley watched a woman who lay dying of a brain tumor. An electrocardiograph and electroencephalograph were attached to her heart and brain to record their electrical waves. First the waves on the left side of her brain stopped. Ten minutes later, the waves on the right side stopped. For ten further minutes, the heart waves kept on. When the heart stopped, the doctors declared the woman dead. But five minutes later, with no stimulation or drugs, the heart started to beat again, continued throbbing for five minutes. According to Dr. Brickley, this...