New Precordial Leads and Regional Vectocardiograms

A few months ago, I received an invitation from cardiologist Dr. Alejandro Bermejo to preface his book Lgica Electrocardiogrfica... desde casi cero (Electrocardiographic logic from almost zero).My initial reaction was very simple: a new book on electrocardiography? What could be written again, more than a hundred years after the development of the technique?My reaction changed immediately upon reading the manuscript.Alexander had broken all known rules and was bringing to the world a work with a totally unprecedented construction that blends the most intimate of cellular electrophysiology with micro-and macroscopic anatomical pathology and surface electrocardiogram to create a didactic product like I had rarely seen.How could my foreword contribute to the success of his creativity?Clearly, I wanted to show my appreciation for his efforts and the results obtained.And the only thing I could think of was to compare his work with that of cooks and musicians.Without repeating myself, I believe that these comparisons also apply to the work carried out by Drs.Mc Loughlin and Di Diego that is published today in this issue of the Argentine Journal of Cardiology.(1)The kitchen of any restaurant has a wide variety of ingredients, but they are not infinite.When grouped according to their origin, a few key categories remain: vegetables, meat, fish, fruits and dairy products.Curiously, and despite this limitation of ingredients, every year dozens, if not hundreds, of cookbooks appear worldwide.Books with new ideas on how to cook, present, and mix different ingredients to create something new.And the result is, in general, indeed a new cuisine sometimes as different as the "molecular" cuisine of the famous Catalan Ferrn Adri of "El Bull", indisputably the Picasso of 20th and 21st century cuisine.Why, then, was I surprised by a new book on electrocardiography?