Woldemar Mobitz (31 May 1889 – 11 April 1951) was a Russian-German physician. The forms of

second degree AV block Second-degree atrioventricular block (AV block) is a disease of the electrical conduction system of the heart. It is a conduction block between the atria and ventricles. The presence of second-degree AV block is diagnosed when one or more (but n ...

are named after him for him. Mobitz was born on 31 May 1889 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, Russia. He attended the local high school in

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 26,000 (2024).

(

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, Germany) from which he graduated in 1908. He then studied medicine at the Universities of

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where he earned his doctorate in 1914 (“Contributions to Basedow disease”). He then worked at the Surgical Hospitals in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and Halle as well as in

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

at the University Hospitals of Munich and Freiburg. In Munich, Mobitz was promoted to the position of a senior lecturer thanks to his research on heart block. In 1928, after a 4-year tenure, he accepted a post in Freiburg as Associate Professor and Chief of Staff of the Clinic of Internal Medicine. In 1943, he became Director of the Medical Hospital in Magdeburg-Sudenburg Municipal Hospital until the occupation by the Soviet army in 1945. Mobitz's work was devoted to internal medicine and he was especially interested in

cardiology Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

. From 1924 to 1928, he published his famous key papers on AV dissociation and

heart block Heart block (HB) is a disorder in the heart's rhythm due to a fault in the natural pacemaker. This is caused by an obstruction – a block – in the electrical conduction system of the heart. Sometimes a disorder can be inherited. Despite the ...

. In 1924, Mobitz differentiated two types of

with the aid of the electrocardiogram and characterized their prognostic significance. With type I (Mobitz type I), the

PR interval In electrocardiography, the PR interval is the period, measured in milliseconds, that extends from the beginning of the P wave (the onset of atrial depolarization) until the beginning of the QRS complex (the onset of ventricular depolarization ...

increases gradually until there is a breakdown of AV conduction. This form is identical to the previously described type of second-degree AV block by

Wenckebach Karel Frederik Wenckebach (; March 24, 1864 – November 11, 1940) was a Dutch anatomist who was a native of the Hague. He studied medicine in Utrecht, and in 1901 become a professor of medicine at the University of Groningen. Later he was a pro ...

at the end of the nineteenth century. With type II block (Mobitz type II), all conducted beats show a constant, typically normal

, and conduction to the ventricles occurs at regular intervals. This form is identical to the type of AV block described by

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

in 1906 without the benefit of electrocardiography. Mobitz included 2 : 1, 3 : 1 AV block in his type II classification, and indicated the serious nature of type II block and its propensity to Adams-Stokes attacks. The Woldemar-Mobitz-Forschungspreis for works concerning rhythmology is awarded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kardiologie. Sinus rhythm with 3-to-2 and 2-to-1 Type II A-V block

Sinus rhythm with 3-to-2 and 2-to-1 Type II A-V block

References

1889 births 1951 deaths German cardiologists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany People from Saint Petersburg {{Germany-med-bio-stub