DIGITALIS IN HEART FAILURE WITH NORMAL RHYTHM

Abstract

In the first edition of his Diseases of the Heart, published in 1908, Mackenzie said: " the nodal rhythm is present in the majority of cases of severe heart failure and in a great many the immediate breakdown is directly attributable to the inception by the heart of this abnormal rhythm." In the third edition, in 1913, the term " auricular fibrillation " was substituted for that of " nodal rhythm," the researches of Lewis and others having established their identity. Mackenzie gave the proportion as " 60 or 70 per cent. of all cases of serious heart failure met with in practice." It is even now generally admitted that auricular fibrillation affects the majority. Lewis (1937) has said that at least 70 per cent. of all cases of failure with congestion display fibrillation.