Herman Carel Burger (1 June 1893 – 28 December 1965) was a Dutch physicist who pioneered the field of electrocardiography and medical physics. A system of positioning of electrodes for electrocardiography is known as Burger's triangle.[1]
Burger was born in Utrecht and was interested in both physics and medicine. He received a PhD in 1918 from Utrecht University with studies on crystal formation and then went to work at Philips in Eindhoven. He also continued to work at Utrecht University and became a reader in 1927 and began to teach physics to students of medicine. After World War II he began to take an interest in electricity and the human body. He chose a triangle of points for electrical measurement which formed an asymmetric triangle, the so-called Burger's triangle, which departed from the previous idea of Willem Einthoven which was an equilateral triangle.[2][3] He also pioneered the use of dyes in blood to study circulation.[4][5]
Burger died of a heart infarction, a year after the death of his wife. He willed his body away for science.[5]
References
edit- ^ Brody, Daniel A. (1954). "The meaning of Lead vectors and the Burger triangle". American Heart Journal. 48 (5): 730–737. doi:10.1016/0002-8703(54)90065-4. PMID 13197299.
- ^ Burger, H. C.; A. G. W. Van Brummelen; G. van Herpen (1961). "Heart-vector and leads" (PDF). American Heart Journal. 61 (3): 317–323. doi:10.1016/0002-8703(61)90601-9. PMID 13689002.
- ^ Burger, H.C.; Tolhoek, H.A.; Backbier, F.G. (1954). "The potential distribution on the body surface caused by a heart vector". American Heart Journal. 48 (2): 249–263. doi:10.1016/0002-8703(54)90177-5. PMID 13180476.
- ^ Snellen, H.A. (1966). "Herman Carel Burger". American Heart Journal. 71 (5): 723–724. doi:10.1016/0002-8703(66)90337-1. PMID 5327609.
- ^ a b Van Herpen, Gerard (2014). "Professor Herman Burger (1893-1965), eminent teacher and scientist, who laid the theoretical foundations of vectorcardiography – and electrocardiography". Journal of Electrocardiology. 47 (2): 168–174. doi:10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2013.11.011. PMID 24506911.