Clinical evaluation of the ballistocardiogram. II. Heart disease: hypertension, angina pectoris, and myocardial infarction.

Abstract 1. 1. Analysis of ballistocardiographic tracings has been made in a group of 135 subjects with known cardiac disease. 2. 2. In the patients with essential hypertension and hypertensive heart disease, only 2 were found to have a completely normal ballistocardiogram at rest. 3. 3. Seventy-five per cent of the angina patients with negative resting electrocardiograms (and positive exercise electrocardiogram tests) showed abnormal ballistocardiographic patterns at rest. Of 5 angina patients with normal resting ballistocardiograms, the ballistocardiogram in 4 became abnormal only after exercise. 4. 4. The ballistocardiogram was abnormal at rest in over 92 per cent of the patients with previous myocardial infarction. 5. 5. Preliminary confirmatory evidence of the valuable aid of the ballistocardiogram in everyday clinical practice is presented.