Firsts in cardiology: Milestones and vital discoveries Ramesh M. Gowda a , Nitin K. Sardana b , Ijaz A. Khan b, * a Division of Cardiology, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, New York, USA b Division of Cardiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 22 South Greene Street — S3B06, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA Received 11 June 2005; accepted 25 June 2005 Available online 3 August 2005 Abstract The modern day cardiology practice thrives on the extraordinary discoveries made in the understanding of the cardiovascular science and in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic methods. In this paper, the milestones and vital discoveries in the field of cardiology are described in chronologic order. D 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: History of medicine; History of cardiology; Cardiovascular diseases 460–377 BC: Hippocrates [1], a Greek physician, first described the ancient doctrine of humoral pathology provid- ing fundamental as to what might go wrong to the heart and why. Hippocratic theory stated that all diseases stemmed from disorders or imbalances of body fluids. He provided the earliest description of sudden cardiac death in his Aphorisms stating, ‘‘Those who are subject to frequent and severe fainting attacks without obvious cause die suddenly.’’ 384 – 322 BC: Aristotle [2], a Greek scholar declared that the heart alone of all the viscera could not withstand injury, and that the human heart has three ventricles: right, left, and middle. 132–63 BC: Mithridates VI [3], King of Pontus, originated theriac as a medicinal preparation devised to work as a universal antidote to virtually anything that ailed a patient, including heart palpitations. 130–200 AD: Galen of Pergamum [4], a Greek physician-scientist, codified the doctrine described by Hippocrates, that man’s health as well as his temperament was determined by the four body fluids or humors — blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. 1538: Andreas Vesalius [5], Professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Padua, Italy published Tabulae Anatomicae, a brief work containing six anno- tated plates, two of which were devoted to the heart and circulatory system. He performed secret dissections on the bodies of executed prisoners and produced revolutionary textbook on gross anatomy, ‘‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica.’’ He dared venture beyond to see how the heart heaved in the chest cavity or how it interacted with other organs of the body. 1603: Hieronymus Fabricius [6] published a study of the veins containing the first descriptions and illustrations of the venous valves. 1628: Robert Fludd [7], an Oxford physician and mystic philosopher was the first to conclude that the heart was the center of the body in the same way that the sun was the center of the solar system. 1628: William Harvey [8], court physician to England’s Charles I, declared heart was indeed a pump and that blood circulates in a continuous flow from the arteries to the veins and back again; blood moves through the body within a closed circulating system. 1665: Johann Elsholtz [9], a German physician showed how blood might be transfused into an arm or leg vein via a hypodermic device. 1667: Richard Lower of England and Jean-Baptiste Denis [10], a physician to Louis XIV, attempted the first human-to-human blood transfusion. 0167-5273/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2005.06.057 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 410 328 2251; fax: +1 410 328 2255. E-mail address: ikhan@medicine.umaryland.edu (I.A. Khan). International Journal of Cardiology 111 (2006) 457 – 460 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcard