Willem Einthoven

Willem Einthoven was a Dutch physiologist who developed the string galvanometer electrocardiograph and received the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on electrocardiography.

Electrocardiography: The recording and interpretation of the heart’s electrical activity. Einthoven’s work established electrocardiography as a method for studying the heart.
Einthoven's triangle: A conceptual triangle formed by the three standard limb leads used in electrocardiography. Einthoven formalized the limb-lead geometry for comparing electrical potentials across the body.
Augustus Désiré Waller: A British physiologist who published an early human electrocardiogram in 1887. Waller’s pioneering recordings preceded Einthoven’s more sensitive and clinically useful instrument.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1924: The 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to Willem Einthoven. The award recognized his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram.
Electrocardiogram: A recording of the heart’s electrical activity over time. The electrocardiograph he developed produced the traces now called electrocardiograms.
Einthoven's law: The relation stating that lead II equals lead I plus lead III in a standard electrocardiogram. The equation expresses the consistency expected among the three limb-lead recordings he defined.
John Burdon-Sanderson: A British physiologist who investigated the electrical activity of the heart in the nineteenth century. His work on cardiac electrical phenomena formed part of the experimental background to Einthoven’s research.
P wave: The first upward or downward deflection in a standard electrocardiogram, associated with atrial depolarization. Einthoven’s waveform conventions helped establish the lettered naming system used for ECG deflections.
Galvanometer: An instrument that detects and measures small electric currents. Einthoven adapted electrical measurement into an instrument sensitive enough to record cardiac signals.
Electrocardiograph: An instrument that records the electrical activity of the heart. Einthoven’s improved electrocardiograph made clinical recording practical and precise.

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Christiaan EijkmanRelated: Einthoven succeeded Eijkman as director of the laboratory in Batavia.