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The 125th anniversary of the His bundle discovery

125 Jahre Entdeckung des His-Bündels

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Abstract

In 1893, Wilhelm His Jr. was the first to describe the AV (atrioventricular) bundle of the vertebrate heart, which now bears his name. Moreover, prior to the turn of the century, W. His Jr. had proved the function of the AV bundle by transection experiments in animals, and had interpreted Adams Stokes disease as heart block due to pathological changes within the bundle. In this way, he was ahead of his time. While clinical interest was limited to the bundle as the location of an AV block in the first half of the 125 years, it has gained attractiveness since then as a target of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The introduction of His bundle electrography relaunched the interest in cardiac arrhythmias. Once the AV bundle could be localized clinically, its ablation, and in recent times its permanent stimulation, became options in the therapy of well-defined arrhythmia and conduction problems.

Zusammenfassung

Im Jahr 1893 beschrieb Wilhelm His Jr. als erster das heute nach ihm benannte AV(Atrioventrikular)-Bündel beim Vertebratenherzen. Noch vor dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde darüber hinaus durch ihn die Funktion des Bündels mit tierexperimentellen Durchtrennungsversuchen bewiesen und das Adams-Stokes-Syndrom als Herzblock infolge einer Erkrankung des Bündels erklärt. Damit war er seiner Zeit voraus. Während in der ersten Hälfte der seitdem vergangenen 125 Jahre die klinische Aufmerksamkeit dem His-Bündel vordergründig als Sitz eines AV-Blocks galt, wurde es in der zweiten Hälfte auch zum Ziel diagnostischer und therapeutischer Interventionen. Die Entwicklung der His-Bündel-Elektrographie belebte das Interesse an den Arrhythmien neu. Die solcherart möglich gewordene klinische Lokalisation des His-Bündels führte in der Therapie spezieller Rhythmus- und Leitungsprobleme zu den Optionen der AV-Ablation und der permanenten His-Bündel-Stimulation.

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  1. Eichendorffstraße 27, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    Georg H. von Knorre

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Correspondence to Georg H. von Knorre.

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G.H. von Knorre declares that he has no competing interests.

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Translations from German into English marked with an asterisk (*) are taken from the respective translated re-publications [12, 17, 38].

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von Knorre, G.H. The 125th anniversary of the His bundle discovery. Herzschr Elektrophys 29, 116–121 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00399-018-0554-2

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