The Normal and Abnormal Unipolar Electrocardiogram in Infants and Children

Abstract

A rather superficial scanning of this book would probably impress the reader with the abundance of illustrative electrocardiograms and the well-conceived and informative charts of numerical data. As an atlas it probably serves a useful purpose. But as a critical study it has many serious limitations. First, it is not a study oftheelectrocardiogram at all, but only of the QRS complex, with no recognition or even reference to the great diagnostic value of the other (P and T) deflections. Second, despite the large amount of measured data on normals, there is admittedly no attempt to assess its statistical significance, or even to objectify the implication that it has any. Third, there is a significant failure to distinguish different types of hemodynamic work loads with their comparably different types of chamber enlargement. As a consequence certain limited as well as actually erroneous concepts and statements emerge. The author, for