1950–1970s: Where We Came From

The history of the Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Laboratory grew out of the background of scientific investigations begun in the early 1940s built around the creativity of EH Wood who surrounded himself with a unique multidisciplinary group of physiologists combined with pathologists, clinicians, surgeons, and engineers. Initially devoted to assessing the physiology of g-forces in dive bombers during World War II with a human centrifuge, the technology for the precise measurement of pressures and flow in the cardiovascular system was developed. This group, working in close geographic proximity on an everyday basis on unmet current and future needs, contributed the fundamental basis for the success of the cardiac laboratory. The precursor opened in 1951 in a Medical Sciences building. From that beginning, they developed technology and approaches for accurate measurement of cardiac output, intracardiac shunts, advances in imaging which included the world’s first CT cardiac scanner, and the creation and implementation of new approaches to surgical treatment of congenital heart disease and an early heart-lung machine. It then moved along to the development of invasive clinical cardiovascular approaches with coronary angiography, the initial hemodynamic description of HFpEF, and the use of videodensitometry to assess cardiac and structural valve physiology and function. From this unique group also came the professional development of a network of multiple generations of thought leaders throughout the world as well as a specific strasse named after EH Wood in Germany. The journey had just begun.