Arrhythmias in the History: Lovesickness.

Lovesickness has been termed a real disorder, with a specific cause, pathogenesis, and cure: it has been attested to in the medical literature since classical times and may still have a place in current medicine in the frame of psychiatry and humoral disorders. Although in different cultures there is a general agreement on the symptoms, including fever, agitation, loss of appetite, headache, rapid breathing, and palpitations, the treatments vary greatly in the various cultural contexts.

[The campaign of returning to the ancient in sphygmology in the Republican Period as viewed from Mai xue cong shu (Series of Pulse Taking)].

From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, the models of "master and apprentice" and "physician of long family tradition for generations" were the main ways for teaching medical knowledge. With the rapid amassment of medical books in the Due to the rapid transmission of western science and technology into China in the Republican period, the art of pulse taking had been treated as unscientific. Yao Xinyuan advocated the recovery of ancient pulse taking of the three-portion approach, i.e., taking the pulses at the neck, hands, and feet for comparison. To spread this idea, Yao and Zhang Ziying compiled the Mai xue cong shu (Series of Pulse Taking) in 1937-1947. Altogether 4 issues were published carrying 29 articles concerning the theoretical exploration, experimental research, and clinical practice. Their thinking and approaches were influential to the study and development of modern sphygmology.

[Identification and re-collection of Bianque's medical works].

Whenever "Biarique's medical works" is mentioned, it means the work collection of an individual school. Through the identification and rearrangement of the fragments of Bianque's medical works from the extant literature, the three clues of the extant works have been sorted out, including Huangdi Bianque Mai Shu (Yellow Emperor and Bianque's Pulse Books) inherited by Canggong. It recreates the outline of the lost Bianque' medical works, and even displays the details of such outline to a certain extent. The main content of Bian que mai shu (Bianque's Pulse Book) collected by Canggong had been recorded in Wang Shuhe's Mai jing (The Pulse Classic), which were inherited in different forms in the extant Nei jing (Internal Classic) and a part of the content in the late editions were collected in Nan jing (Classic of Difficult Issues). Wu se mai (five-color pulse) was inherited from Mai jing (The Pulse Classic), the "Xianggong Wen Bianque" (Xianggong Catechism on Bianque) recorded in Shan fan fang (The Refined and Extracted Prescriptions) written by Xie Shitai in the Six Dynasties, the "Huangdi Wen Bianque" (Questions and Answers between Yellow Emperor and Bianque) in Qian jin yi fang (A supplement to the Essential Prescriptions worth a Thousand Gold), as well as from Ling shu: Wu se (Miraculous Pivot: Five Colors). In this paper, the notable and hot cases in the present academic field are analyzed, aiming to arouse people's attention to the methods and insights of literature research, as well as the reconsideration on the importance of the deep and solid research on the extant literatures.

Discourse on pulse in medieval Persia--the Hidayat of Al-Akhawayni (?-983 A D.).

In a period of compilation, original observations and expansion (900-1100 A.D.), Persians described new clinical manifestations of the diseases and expanded the earlier knowledge of materia medica. In the epoch of the Arabic language domination in the scientific literature of this period, advent of medical authors to write in Farsi shined in the Persian principalities. Akhawayani Bokhari was by far the most outstanding scholar of the time who wrote one of the earliest pandects of medicine of the period, the Hidayat al-Mutallimin fi al-Tibb (Learner's Guide to Medicine) in new Persian. The Hidayat is a relatively short and simplified digest of medicine at the time providing a glimpse of high level of medical education at the Samanid period (819-999). The present article is a translation of the sections of the Hidayat related to the pulse and its characters and conditions affecting the pulse in an attempt to increase our knowledge of the medicine, and particularly the pulse examination throughout the medieval era.

Arterial blood pressure measurement and pulse wave analysis--their role in enhancing cardiovascular assessment.

The most common method of clinical measurement of arterial blood pressure is by means of the cuff sphygmomanometer. This instrument has provided fundamental quantitative information on arterial pressure in individual subjects and in populations and facilitated estimation of cardiovascular risk related to levels of blood pressure obtained from the brachial cuff. Although the measurement is taken in a peripheral limb, the values are generally assumed to reflect the pressure throughout the arterial tree in large conduit arteries. Since the arterial pressure pulse becomes modified as it travels away from the heart towards the periphery, this is generally true for mean and diastolic pressure, but not for systolic pressure, and so pulse pressure. The relationship between central and peripheral pulse pressure depends on propagation characteristics of arteries. Hence, while the sphygmomanometer gives values of two single points on the pressure wave (systolic and diastolic pressure), there is additional information that can be obtained from the time-varying pulse waveform that enables an improved quantification of the systolic load on the heart and other central organs. This topical review will assess techniques of pressure measurement that relate to the use of the cuff sphygmomanometer and to the non-invasive registration and analysis of the peripheral and central arterial pressure waveform. Improved assessment of cardiovascular function in relation to treatment and management of high blood pressure will result from future developments in the indirect measurement of arterial blood pressure that involve the conventional cuff sphygmomanometer with the addition of information derived from the peripheral arterial pulse.

De pulsibus--or sense and simplicity in daily medical practice.

In today's medicine ultrasound and imaging are dominant features. As a consequence a tactile maneuver like palpation of the pulse became something like a relic from the past, rather trivial and habitual but certainly not an activity to be haughty about in terms of skill and professional development. Nevertheless medical history tells a complete different story and rehabilitation of the pulse lore is highly desirable as a tool with sense and simplicity, reassuring when possible but for all as an inexpensive and accessible instrument with a substantial diagnostic yield.

[Legendary physician of Ancient China Pian Chiao--excellent diagnostician and founder of acupuncture].

The article presents data about legendary physician of Ancient China - Pjan Chiao. His contribution to the development of ancient traditional Chinese medicine is considered.

Notas históricas sobre la palpación del pulso arterial / Historic notes on the palpation of the arterial pulse

Se presenta un recuerdo histórico de la antigua técnica de la palpación del pulso desde la más remota antigüedad hasta la época contemporánea, basado en testimonios escritos tales como los papiros de Edwin Smith y Ebers, los tratados chinos de esfigmología y los textos de los médicos griegos Rufus de Efeso y Galeno de Pérgamo. Se describen los progresos en la palpación del pulso desde el Renacimiento, pasando por los siglos XVII y XVIII. Se recuerdan los primeros intentos del registro gráfico del pulso de Vierordt, Marley y Mackenzie, culminando con los progresos logrados por Allen y Wood en el siglo XX. Se enfatiza la importancia de mantener la enseñanza y la práctica de la palpación del pulso, como parte de las habilidades y destrezas clínicas de las jóvenes generaciones médicas del presente y del futuro.

Notas históricas sobre la palpación del pulso arterial / Historic notes on the palpation of the arterial pulse

Se presenta un recuerdo histórico de la antigua técnica de la palpación del pulso desde la más remota antig³edad hasta la época contemporánea, basado en testimonios escritos tales como los papiros de Edwin Smith y Ebers, los tratados chinos de esfigmología y los textos de los médicos griegos Rufus de Efeso y Galeno de Pérgamo. Se describen los progresos en la palpación del pulso desde el Renacimiento, pasando por los siglos XVII y XVIII. Se recuerdan los primeros intentos del registro gráfico del pulso de Vierordt, Marley y Mackenzie, culminando con los progresos logrados por Allen y Wood en el siglo XX. Se enfatiza la importancia de mantener la enseñanza y la práctica de la palpación del pulso, como parte de las habilidades y destrezas clínicas de las jóvenes generaciones médicas del presente y del futuro. (AU)

Notas históricas sobre la palpación del pulso arterial / Historic notes on the palpation of the arterial pulse

Se presenta un recuerdo histórico de la antigua técnica de la palpación del pulso desde la más remota antig³edad hasta la época contemporánea, basado en testimonios escritos tales como los papiros de Edwin Smith y Ebers, los tratados chinos de esfigmología y los textos de los médicos griegos Rufus de Efeso y Galeno de Pérgamo. Se describen los progresos en la palpación del pulso desde el Renacimiento, pasando por los siglos XVII y XVIII. Se recuerdan los primeros intentos del registro gráfico del pulso de Vierordt, Marley y Mackenzie, culminando con los progresos logrados por Allen y Wood en el siglo XX. Se enfatiza la importancia de mantener la enseñanza y la práctica de la palpación del pulso, como parte de las habilidades y destrezas clínicas de las jóvenes generaciones médicas del presente y del futuro. (AU)