Louis Nelson Katz

Biography

• Born 1897 in Pinsk, Poland
• 1900 – Emigrated to Cleveland, United States of America
• 1918 – Western Reserve University (WRU), Cleveland, A.B. degree; 1921 – M.D. degree; 1923 – M.A. degree
• 1924-25 – Research Fellowship in the Department of Physiology, University of London, with Professor Archibald Hill (Nobel Laureate)
• 1924 – Elected to the American Physiological Society (APS)
• 1927 – Assistant Professor of Physiology, WRU
• 1928-30 – Consultant cardiologist St. Luke’s Hospital, Cleveland
• 1930 – Director of the Cardiovascular Research Department (Cardiovascular Institute) of Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago; and Assistant Professor of Physiology at the University of Chicago
• 1952-54 – APS Membership Advisory Committee (chairman 1953-1954)
• 1954-57 – Chairman of Program Advisory Committee
• 1957-58 – Elected 30th President of the APS
• 1967 – Director emeritus of the Cardiovascular Institute
• Died 1973

Key Medical Attributions

• Over 500 publications of original research across a wide range of cardiology, including electrophysiology, hypertension, haemodynamics, cardiovascular metabolism, experimental atherosclerosis, pharmacodynamics, respiration, cardiovascular anatomy and pathology, and psychosomatic and epidemiologic aspects of heart disease
• Major roles in numerous associations, including: International Society of Cardiology (1962), Inter-American Society of Cardiology (1948), American Physiological Society (1957), American Society for the Study of Arteriosclerosis (1954), Chicago Heart Association, and American Heart Association (1942)

Medical Eponyms

• Katz-Wachtel phenomenon (1937) – large biphasic RS complexes in V2-5. This is the classic ECG pattern of Biventricular Hypertrophy, most commonly seen in children with ventricular septal defect (VSD)
  

Major Publications

• Katz LN and Wachtel H. The diphasic QRS type of electrocardiogram in congenital heart disease. Am Heart J; 1937, 13: 202-206.
• Katz LN. Physiology and physiologists: a swan song. Physiologist. 1958;1(5): 18-25
• Katz LN. Pick A. Clinical electrocardiography. Philadelphia : Lea &​ Febiger, 1956
• Katz LN, Stamler J. Experimental Atherosclerosis. Southern Medical Journal. 1954:47;1218.

References

• Hellerstein HK. Louis Nelson Katz (1897-1973): an appreciative profile. Clin Cardiol. 1986 Sep;9(9):470-4. [PMID 3530573]
  
• Weisse AB. Remembering Louis N. Katz, MD (1897-1973) Circulation. 1998;97(14):1338-9. [PMID 9577942]
• Fenn WO. History of the American Physiological Society: The Third Quarter Century, 1937-1962. American Physiological Society. 1963: 42-43.