title: Werner Forssmann and catheterization of the heart, 1929.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000266:history*; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011859:Radiography