Notes on the history of experimental cardiology

Due to the numerous chapters discussing the history of this society, substantial aspects of cardiovascular research are covered to a great extent. Therefore it is extraordinarily difficult to find a convincing classification for the field of "Experimental Cardiology". What remains, if physiology, heart surgery, coronary heart disease, diagnostic imaging, heart failure, hypertension, electrophysiology, arteriosclerosis and pathology are presented separately? Therefore I decided to choose different ways of covering the meetings up to the end of World War II and then for the time after 1948. Only some congresses are mentioned. I proceed chronologically, whereby I have indicated relevant or interesting personal, but rather political aspects, that attracted my attention when studying the meeting reports. The selection is certainly personally influenced. Methodological problems (cardiac output, electrocardiogram (ECG), phonocardiography (PCG), RR, etc.) as well as issues of circulatory regulation were in the foreground at the early meetings. The classical history of cardiovascular research of the American Physiological Society of 1964 (5) and a series of works about the history of cardiology (e.g., (1, 2, 6)) published in the last few years outline the most important lines of development. The areas energy supply, energy demand and myocardial metabolism are covered rather incidentally there. I want to focus on these aspects on the basis of the meetings.