DISSERTATION

The Use of the Pulse-Ratio Test for Detecting Non-Compensated
Organic Lesions of the Heart

Preliminary studies by Sievers? and others suggested that the
pulse-ratio test or the response of the heart to exercises of graded
intensity may serve as a basis for detecting non-compensated
hearts.

In order to establish the validity of the pulse-ratio test as a
means of detecting non-compensated organic lesions of the heart,
it was given to 107 subjects who had been diagnosed as having
some form of heart disease.

On the basis of the differences between the experimental and
the caleulated pulse-ratios as recorded in this study, the pulse-
ratio test appears to be valid as a means of detecting non-com-
pensated organic lesions of the heart. No indication as to the
nature of the lesion is furnished by the data.

Seventy-five replies to one hundred questionnaires sent to mem-
bers of college student health departments indicate their belief
that information should be obtained by the lay instructor relative
to the possibility of the presence of non-compensated heart lesions.
These replies reveal also that the student health profession has
no simple test for organic lesions which might be used by the
lay instructor, and further indicate that there is need for such
a test.

1 Sievers, Henry: ‘‘A Simple Method of Detecting Abnormal Hearts by

the Use of the Pulse-ratio Test.’’ Research Quart., 1935, 6: (May, 1935)
31-38.