Factor Analysis of the Electrocardiogram

Abstract

The factor analysis of electrocardiograms from 17 normal individuals indicates that over 95 per cent of all the electrocardiographic "information" is accounted for by 3 factors. In the entire series, all individual leads were more than 93 per cent accounted for by 3 factors. These results indicate that there are no significant voltages at the body surface in normal individuals which can be ascribed to more than 3 internal generators. While these results indicate a 3-function system, they do not indicate a dipolar system since a dipole is a special case of a more general 3-function system.