[Electrodynamic discrepancy of the heart].

Electrodynamic discrepancy was observed in the hearts of 15 out of 144 patients with myocardial infarction who died on account of various complications. Autopsy revealed cardiac rupture with pericardial tamponade in each of the 15 cases. If the ECG shows no typical signs of a myocardial infarction, then with great probability an aortic rupture is present. The pathomechanism of electrodynamic discrepancy of the heart may be explained with the help of Laplace's law and "neuropraxia", "Afterload" and "preload" are reduced to practically nil, the tension of the myocardial walls falls, the effective work of the heart muscle stops and with the considerably lower oxygen requirement of the myocardium the bioelectric activity of the heart is still maintained for 12-30 minutes.