[Clinical vectorcardiography: the Fritz-Schellong commemorative lecture].

The continuous and direct registration of the vectorcardiogram was realized by cathode-ray oscillographic methods by F. Schellong in 1937 and hence introduced into clinical diagnostics. The following development of different lead systems resulted in the standardization of the corrected orthogonal Frank system, which yielded almost identical information when compared to the Schellong system. The advantages of this continuous registration of the 3-dimensional course of depolarization concern the detection of atrial and ventricular hypertrophy, because the sensitivity, as well as the specificity, of the vectorcardiogram are superior to the ECG. Possibilities of diagnosing myocardial infarction are considerably improved with regard to sensitivity, especially of scars with dorsal and inferior localization, as well as multiple events and simultaneous disturbances of fascicular and ventricular conduction. In addition, even multiple and small defects e.g. in cardiomyopathy or myocarditis, can be detected.