Studies Utilizing the Portable Electromagnetic Ballistocardiograph

Abstract

Persons who have failed to habituate to the cardiovascular effects of nicotine will demonstrate changes in their ballistocardiogram after smoking. These ballistocardiographic changes produced by smoking are of more abnormal quality and are found more frequently in patients with coronary artery and hypertensive heart disease than in normal subjects. The ballistocardiograph provides an accurate objective means of determining whether nicotine has a deleterious effect upon the myocardial function of a patient. In a significant proportion of patients with heart disease who demonstrated an abnormal ballistocardiographic response to smoking, clinical improvement was obtained after a period of tobacco abstention.