Electrocardiograms of Deceptive Form in Ventricular Hypertrophy

(Since 1911, a monthly clinical or clinical pathologic conference has been held for the clinical clerks—volunteer third and fourth year medical students—and staff of the oldest known clinic for the care of ambulatory cardiac patients in existence.1 At each of the conferences held on Oct. 30, 1952 and Nov. 20, 1952, a case was presented which displayed during life an electrocardiogram with a configuration quite the opposite of what might be expected from the type of ventricular hypertrophy found after death. Since in one instance the hypertrophy was of the right ventricle and in the other of the left, the fortuitous and instructive coincidence seemed worth recording especially for the purpose of re-emphasizing the undesirability of making anatomic deductions from a purely physiologic method. The proceedings of the two conferences have been condensed into one.)