Unipolar Lead Electrocardiography Including Standard Leads. Unipolar Extremity Leads and Multiple Unipolar Precordial Leads

This monograph was expectantly awaited because the author has done much to popularize the recent development of the so-called unipolar limb leads. A review of this book must deal with two aspects: (a) the theory of the unipolar leads and its practical application and (b) the adequacy of the presentation of the subject by the author. In its early development with the limb leads, electrocardiography recorded the differences in the electrical effects of the heart on the two electrodes which form each limb lead. With the advent of precordial or chest electrocardiography, the difference in the effect on the two electrodes used in such recording was much greater. The difference in effect approached but did not equal the unipolar method obtained by connecting an electrode on the surface of the exposed heart with an "indifferent" electrode at a distance on the body. Wilson therefore endeavored to obtain a true unipolar