Purkinje Fibers and Arrhythmias

Johannes Purkinje (1787–1869) was a prolific Czech anatomist and physiologist.1 He established the first Department of Physiology in the world in 1839 in Prussia. He was the first to use a microtome to obtain thin tissue sections for microscopic examination and was the first to describe sweat glands. He introduced the terms “plasma” and “protoplasm.” He made major contributions to the study of vision, including discovery of the Purkinje effect, the Purkinje shift, and Purkinje images. He discovered two types of Purkinje cells: large neurons in the cerebellum and, of particular interest to cardiac electrophysiologists, large cardiac muscle fibers specialized for rapid conduction along the endocardium of the ventricles.1