Werner Forssmann and catheterization of the heart, 1929.

Department of Surgery, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse.

Invasive study of cardiac anatomy and function traces its origin to the work of a 25-year-old surgical trainee in a provincial German town in the pre-Depression years of 1929 and 1930. Only 1 year out of medical school and undeterred by the medical profession's fear of tampering with the heart, Dr Werner Forssmann explored methods for a more direct access to the cardiac chambers, finding it necessary to make the observations on himself. Later he was able to show that the right-sided cardiac chambers could be visualized radiographically after injection of iodinated contrast materials through a catheter into the right atrium, and again he tried the method on himself.

Personal Name as Subject:

Forssmann W

PMID: 2178572 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]