“Broadbent’s sign” – recession of the intercostal spaces as a sign of adherent pericardium.

A sphygmomanometer for registering the blood-pressure in the finger was invented by Mosso.

Pulmonary collapse at the left base in pericardial effusion – “Ewart’s sign”.

“Pick’s disease” – pericardial pseudocirrhosis of the liver.

Riva-Rocci’s sphygmomanometer marked the end of the search for a simple clinical method of estimating the blood-pressure. Abridged English translation in Ruskin (No. 3160.1).

Estimation of heart size by fluoroscope, first application of x rays to cardiology.

Chapter 17 includes J. Broadbent’s classic description of adherent pericardium. See Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 712-15, for reproduction of part of this chapter.

“Riding aorta”, patent interventricular septum and right ventricular enlargement – the “Eisenmenger syndrome”.

Hill and Barnard made an important modification to the Riva-Rocci sphygmomanometer when they substituted a pressure gauge in place of the mercury manometer used for pressure readings.

Includes among many other valuable descriptions, the description of the "Gibson murmur" also called the "machinery murmur"

Rummo drew attention to a downward displacement of the heart – “Rummo’s disease”.

“Wenckebach phenomenon”, a form of arrhythmia.

“Fiedler’s myocarditis”.

Gaertner, an Austrian physician, invented an instrument for measuring blood-pressure by means of a compressing ring applied to the finger.

Third and best edition. "Huchard, physician to the Necker Hospital was a foremost teacher in Paris at the end of the 19th century, and a great authority on angina pectoris and arteriosclerosis. He was a powerful advocate for the coronary theory and assembled 185 [case reports] as published examples of angina pectoris associated with coronary disease" (Bedford 393, quote from Bedford 394).

In his classic monograph Mackenzie included (p. 10) a description and illustration of his polygraph, with which he made simultaneous tracings of the pulse, apex beat, etc.

Orthodiagraphy of the heart.

Distinction of infantile and adult types of coarctation of the aorta.

In his work on rheumatic myocarditis, Aschoff described the characteristic lesion (Aschoff body or nodule) and presented a histopathological picture of myocarditis that was to exert a great influence on the classification of the disease. Translated in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 733-39.

Introduction of teleradiography of the heart.

Korotkov introduced the modern method of applying the stethoscope to the brachial artery during blood-pressure examination with Riva-Rocci’s sphygmomanometer, for the purpose of investigating the sounds made by the blood after release of the air-pressure cuff. For an English translation of the paper see Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med.,1941, 17,877-79.

Mackenzie established the remarkable action of digitalis in auricular fibrillation.

Auricular flutter in man first recognized.

First recognition of auricular fibrillation in man. Cushny and Edmunds had a case under their care in 1901. Hering described the condition in man in Prag. med. Wschr.,1903, 28, 377.

The Cushing & Edmunds paper was also published in Studies in Pathology written ... to celebrate the quartercentenary of Aberdeen University. Edited by W. Bulloch (Aberdeen, 1906) 95-110.

Kriloff made extensive observations on the sounds which Korotkov had shown to be emitted by the blood after removal of the Riva-Rocci air-pressure cuff during the blood-pressure measurement.

Treponema pallidum first discovered in the diseased aorta.

Fellner suggested the use of the stethoscope in the measurement of systolic and diastolic pressure.

Chapter 30 of the third edition (1914) includes Mackenzie’s classic description of the clinical picture of “nodal rhythm” (auricular fibrillation). Reprinted in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 769-93.

The tender subcutaneous nodes in subacute bacterial endocarditis (“Osler’s nodes”) were first observed by Osler in 1888, and reported in 1909. This paper is the first definite clinical description of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

“Bracht–Wächter bodies” in the myocardium in bacterial endocarditis.

Classic description of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

First description of auricular fibrillation as a cause of clinical perpetual arrhythmia. See also the paper in Heart, London, 1909-10, 1,306-72.

Independently of Lewis (No. 2830) these workers claimed auricular fibrillation to be the cause of perpetual arrhythmia.

First clinical and pathological description of bundle-branch block.

Auricular flutter first described.

Libman and Celler found Strep. endocarditis to be the most common cause of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

First complete description of coronary thrombosis, diagnosed before death and confirmed at necropsy. Reprinted in Klin. Med. (Mosk.), 1949, 27,No. 11, 15-25.

First to isolate Strep viridans in cases of bacterial endocarditis, Schottmüller named the condition Endocarditis lenta.

Baehr drew attention to the renal lesions in subacute bacterial endocarditis.

Outstanding description of coronary thrombosis. Herrick was the first to describe and diagnose coronary thrombosis in a living person; he showed that sudden coronary occlusion is not necessarily fatal. Reprint in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 817-29.

Instantaneous radiography of the heart.

Wenckebach was the first to demonstrate (pp. 173-75) the value of quinine (“Wenckebach’s pills”) in the treatment of paroxysmal fibrillation. The same work contains a number of excellent descriptions of various forms of cardiac arrythmia. The second edition, written in co-operation with Heinrich Winterberg, was expanded to 2 vols, Leipzig, Engelmann, 1927.

Introduction of kymography in clinical cardiology.

“Lutembacher syndrome”.

Medical Research Committee Special Rept. No. 8. Sir Thomas Lewis described as “effort syndrome” the condition of disordered action of the heart known as “Da Costa’s syndrome”.

Following Wenckebach’s discovery of the efficacy of quinine in the restoration of normal rhythm in auricular fibrillation. Frey showed that quinidine was the most effective of the cinchona alkaloids in this respect.

First attempt to restore the heart’s action by intracardiac injection.

Sir Thomas Lewis was a pioneer in the application of electrocardiography to clinical medicine. His book was both an exhaustive treatise on the subject for its time, and a valuable bibliographical source. Second edition: The mechanism and graphic registration of the heart beat, 1920; third and last edition,1925.

First description of the typical changes in the electrocardiogram in coronary thrombosis.

Saxl injected a mercurial compound (Novasurol), a powerful diuretic, for the treatment of cardiac failure.

Mann developed the monocardiogram while a fourth-year medical student. This was the first vector loop and the beginning of modern vectorcardiography.

The first systematic textbook on rheumatic heart disease.

“Libman–Sacks disease”.

Roesler described the most important roentgenologic sign of aortic coarctation.

Classic description of aortic medionecrosis.

The first cardiac catheterization on a living person. Forssmann catheterized his own heart. Historical note by N. Howard-Jones, Bull. Hist. Med.,1973, 47,524-6. English translation in Callahan, Keys & Key, Classics of Cardiology, Vol. 3, 250-55.

In 1956 Forssmann shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Cournand (No. 2871) and Richards (No. 2883.2) "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system."

Aortography. With A. C. Lamas and J. Pereira Caldas. Also published in Bull. Soc.méd.chir. Paris, 1929, 55,587-601.

Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, the best-known of the “pre-excitation syndromes”.

Vaso-vagal syncope.

Introduction of chest leads.

Unipolar leads. With F. D. Johnston, A. G. MacLeod, and P. S. Barker.

Introduction of the vectorcardiogram.

Diagnosis of cardiac pain. With A. L. Barach and H. G. Bruenn.

Also in Amer. Heart J.,1938, 15,107-08, 235-39. Precordial leads are also called unipolar leads.

Introduction of angiocardiography, which for the first time revealed the internal structure of the living heart. A fuller account by the same authors is in Amer. J. Roentgenol.,1939, 41,1-17.

Introduction of the ballistocardiogram. With A. J. Rawson, H. A. Schroeder, and N. R. Joseph.

First investigations with the cardiac catheter as a clinical method of investigation.

In 1956 Cournand in 1956 shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Forssmann (No. 2858) and Richards (No. 2883.2) "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system."

Low-sodium diet in heart failure.

Augmented unipolar leads.

With B. R. Boone and W. E. Chamberlain.

This 618-page work, which required ten years to write, was the first "definitive textbook" of congenital heart defects, a subspecialty of pediatrics that Taussig created. The second edition, published in 1960, was essentially doubled in length to about 1250 pages and extended to two volumes.

The first successful defibrillation of a surgical patient, with the chest opened, and the paddles applied directly to the heart. With  H.S. Feil.

With H. E. Hanson and J. Karnell.

With E. Corday, I. C. Brill, A. L. Seller, R. W. Oblath, W. A. Flieg, and H. E. Kruger.

A new classification proposed.

External cardiac pacemaker. "The medical world took notice when Zoll announced in 1952 that he had successfully kept a patient alive through numerous episodes of ventricular standstill using a bedside device that delivered electrical pulses to the heart." (Jeffrey, Machines in our hearts (2001) 37).
"There are two kinds of cardiac rhythm disturbances in patients who have cardiac arrest - the rhythm disturbance of a heart in standstill; and the rhythm disturbance of a 'fibrillating' heart, which are the commonest causes of death in acute heart attacks. The effective techniques that now help to control these disturbances are the pioneering contributions of Dr. Paul M. Zoll. Dr. Zoll demonstrated for the first time in 1952, that when a human heart stops, it can be induced, by externally applied electric stimulation, to resume beating. Dr. Zoll's later studies showed that externally applied alternating current countershocks are similarly effective in stopping ventricular fibrillation." Mary Lasker and Michael DeBakey, in "Citations" (quoted by W. Bruce Fye).

Echocardiography, from which the field of medical ultrasonics developed.

Diagnostic test for myocardial infarction.

Demonstration of the Doppler shift in the frequency of ultrasound backscattered by moving cardiac structures.

With N. A. Roth, D. Bernardez, and J. L. Noble.

Kouwenhoeven and colleagues developed closed-chest cardiac massage without thoracotomy. Kouwenhoeven has been called "the father of cardiopulmonary resuscitation."

Use of transthoracic direct current countershock of very short duration to avoid the vulnerable period in the cardiac cycle.

Hughes is credited with inventing the coronary care unit, and the "crash cart"

Scherlag was the first person to consistently record atrial ventricular bundle ("His bundle") potentials, which served as one of the cornerstones of clinical electrophysiology.

With 5 co-authors.

The Swan-Ganz balloon flotation catheter, a flow-guided balloon-tipped catheter of flexible construction, which enabled “placement without associated ventricular arrhythmias, prompt and reliable passage to the pulmonary artery and passage without fluoroscopy”. With 4 co-authors.

From the description given by the Earl of Clarendon in his autobiography, on vol. 1, p. 16, his father, Henry Hyde, almost certainly suffered from, and died of, angina pectoris. If this is really so, it is the first recorded case. The description is reproduced in Annals of Medical History, 1922, 4, 210. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Morgagni was the founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work was completed in Morgagni’s 79th year and consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could, he correlated the clinical record with the post–mortem finding. Morgagni gave the first descriptions of several pathological conditions. He was Professor of Anatomy at Padua. Selections from the above work are reproduced in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 640-839. English translation by B. Alexander, 3 vols., London, 1769, (facsimile reprint, New York, Hafner, 1960; Mount Kisco, N.Y., Futura, 1980).

Classic descriptions of mitral stenosis (Letter III) and heart block, Stokes–Adams syndrome (vol. 1, p. 70) are reprinted in English translation in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 177-82. In Volume one, p. 282 Morgagni also reported an authentic case of angina pectoris is recorded by Morgagni; he observed it in 1707.

Osler, Allbutt, and several other authorities believe this to be the description of an authentic case of angina, thus preceding Heberden’s classic account. Other eminent authorities consider the patient to have suffered from pulmonary emphysema. This little book of 55 pages is extremely rare; the whereabouts of only 2 copies is known.

This classic description of angina pectoris is the substance of a paper read on July 21, 1768. Although descriptions of angina are to be found in the works of earlier writers, these mention only dyspnoea in their cases. The merit of Herberden’s account (in which, incidently, he used the name “angina pectoris”) lies in the fact that he was the first to include a description of the paroxysmal oppression in the thorax. Reprinted with other writings by Heberden in An Introduction to the Study of Physic, New York, 1929.

This was a paper read before the Gloucester Medical Society in 1788, but not published until 1799. Largely confirming the earlier work of Heberden on the condition, Parry stated his conclusion that disease of the coronary arteries is the responsible factor in angina pectoris (which he called “syncope anginosa”). He was the first to observe the slowing of the heart rate folowing pressure on the carotid artery.

Burns described endocarditis and reported three cases of mitral stenosis. He recognized the thrill present in the latter condition and seems to have understood the mechanism of a cardiac murmur. He also described unilateral paralysis of the diaphragm resulting from pressure on the phrenic nerve by a thoracic aneurysm. Burns was also among the first to suggest (see p. 136) that angina pectoris is an expression of coronary obstruction. Biography by J. B. Herrick, 1935.

Lauder Brunton was responsible for the introduction of amyl nitrite for the alleviation of angina. Reprinted in F. A. Willius & T. E. Keys: Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 561-64.

Nothnagel, himself a victim of angina, described the vasomotor form of the disease.

Murrell introduced trinitrin (nitroglycerin, glyceryl trinitrate) in the treatment of angina.

In 1895 Askanazy proposed diuretin as a remedy for anginal pain.

Includes his suggestion of the aortic genesis of angina pectoris, and (vol. 2, p. 368) his mechanical theory of cardiac pain in coronary occlusion.

First electrocardiogram recorded (1917) from a patient with angina pectoris.

Cervical sympathectomy for the treatment of angina pectoris was first carried out by Jonnesco in 1916.

First paravertebral injection for the treatment of angina pectoris.

A classic description of angina by “the beloved physician”, one of the greatest of all cardiologists. Mackenzie considered the disease to be due to cardiac failure.

Thyroidectomy for congestive heart failure and angina pectoris. With D. D. Berlin.