Laufberger contributed in a fundamental way to the solution of practically all basic problems of the electric field theory of the heart (EPS). He defined the centre of EPS and elaborated the procedure of its determination by means of mirror image ECG and derived the mathematical relationship by means of which it is possible to assess the distance of the surface electrode from the given point inside the chest (1952, 1953) and to correct thus the magnitude of the ECG. On these findings he based his individually corrected vector cardiographic system of leads. By the term cardiale (1961, 1963)--the spatial curve of tension maxima which develop in the EPS during the electric systole of the heart--Laufberger resolved the problem of the physical basis of electrocardiography. Its correlate is the spatioelectrocardiogram (1953)--a spatial curve which developed by "synthesis" of orthogonal ECG of the vector cardiographic system of axes. In orbital spatiocardiography (1961, 1963) he expressed synthetically the topography of shapes of the set of surface ECG, the amplitudes of which correspond to the global area, equidistant in relation to the centre of EPS (orbit). He foresaw by many years the inverse problem solution (i.e., assessment of properties of the EPS source from properties of the body surface potential distribution) by orthogonal transformations, in particular in the shape of the multipole theory. Laufberger generalized the mentioned findings in a mathematical model of EPS (1970-1980) which made it possible to study all laws he revealed and their mutual action on the formation of the set of surface ECG.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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