[The standard ECG: did its significance change?]

Since introduction of electrocardiography as a clinical method its significance varied. In investigating atrial changes, ventricular hypertrophies and pericardial diseases imaging methods became superior to the ECG. In the diagnosis of coronary artery disease the significance of the standard ECG is different according to clinical picture and stage. Nevertheless it is indispensable in situations with acute ischemia. Knowledge from interventional electrophysiology made interpretations of the standard ECG in conduction disorders and arrhythmias more reliable. Up to now informations gathered from the repolarisation phase in the standard ECG are growing.Thus, despite a change of its significance within partial aspects of cardiology the nearly 100 year old clinical method of electrocardiography as standard ECG of to day is still of high practical value.