Does ballistocardiography correlate with clinical findings in patients with symptoms of angina pectoris?
Ballistocardiographic abnormalities correlate with typical angina pectoris, suggesting its potential utility as a diagnostic tool for atypical cases.
The physiologic evaluation of the heart by recording mechanical heart actions which in turn are imparted to the body is an approach easily available through the use of the ballistocardiograph. This instrument thus affords a physiologic approach to the problem of angina pectoris and may be used as a diagnostic agent. Ballistocardiographic tracings have been correlated with the histories, physical findings, and electrocardiograms of 50 patients with symptoms of angina pectoris. These were grouped into typical and atypical cases with further subdivision based upon the presence or absence of objective cardiac abnormality. Most significant in the series was the establishment of a definite correlation between abnormality of the ballistocardiographic pattern and the typical cases of angina pectoris. Such a relationship validates use of this instrument as a diagnostic agent in the atypical cases of angina pectoris where it is anticipated that diagnosis can be specifically aided by supplying empiric evidence of cardiac abnormality.
Brown et al. (Sun,) studied this question.