Katzeff I E, Gathiram P, Edwards H, Booyens J
Med Hypotheses. 1981 Mar;7(3):373-92. doi: 10.1016/0306-9877(81)90074-8.
The "imaginary cardiac vector" hypothesis states that the "cardiac vector" is not a "real" vector entity. The hypothesis arises from the fact that voltage is not a vector but a scalar quantity. Nevertheless, in classical electrocardiographic analysis and teaching, the ECG voltage is treated as a vector. These voltages are used as "vector" components--first, to calculate a "resultant manifest potential difference", represented by the "cardiac vector" arrow in electrocardiography, and second, to draw the "cardiac vector" loop in vectorcardiography. The resultant "cardiac vector" is usually considered to be a "real" vector quantity describing the electrical activity of the heart. It is also widely believed that this "vector" was first described by Einthoven in 1913. To evaluate the hypothesis, we have utilised the actual values and methods presented by Einthoven, and demonstrated that the theoretical basis of the "cardiac vector" is false. It appears that Einthoven followed scalar and not vector procedures and that he did not describe a vector.
“假想心脏向量”假说认为，“心脏向量”并非一个“真实”的向量实体。该假说源于电压并非向量而是标量这一事实。然而，在经典心电图分析和教学中，心电图电压被当作向量处理。这些电压被用作“向量”分量——其一，用于计算“综合显在电位差”，在心电图中由“心脏向量”箭头表示；其二，用于在向量心电图中绘制“心脏向量”环。所得的“心脏向量”通常被视为描述心脏电活动的一个“真实”向量量值。人们还普遍认为，这个“向量”最早由艾因托芬于1913年描述。为评估该假说，我们采用了艾因托芬给出的实际数值和方法，并证明“心脏向量”的理论基础是错误的。看来艾因托芬遵循的是标量而非向量程序，而且他并未描述一个向量。
