Naum Lazarevich Gurvich
1905-1981
Biography
Esteemed pathophysiologist
and cardiac electrophysiologist, Naum L. Gurvich, was born on April 15, 1905 in
the village of Timkovichi, near the capital of Byelorussia Minsk. He received his
MD from Saratov Medical School in 1928 and then worked as a family physician
for 4 years in the village of Volovo near Moscow. In 1932, he was enrolled into
graduate school at the Institute of Physiology in Moscow. His Ph.D. advisor, and director of the
Institute of Physiology L.S. Schtern was a former trainee and associate of
L.-P. Prevost in Geneva, who was one of the discoverers of defibrillation in
1899. Gurvich has become a devoted member of Schtern’s research laboratory,
which has concentrated on electric stimulus induced arrhythmogenesis and
defibrillation. In 1939, Naum Gurvich was awarded a Ph.D. for his work “On
excitation of intramural system by sinusoidal current of low frequency”. The
same year he co-authored a paper with G.S.Yuniev, in which they proposed the
use of capacitor discharge for defibrillation instead of an alternative
current. In 1940th, Gurvich
proposed the use of biphasic waveforms for defibrillation. In 1948, Gurvich
moved to the Laboratory of Experimental Physiology of Resuscitation, Academy of
Medical Sciences of USSR, Moscow. The main focus of his entire research career
was on the mechanisms of initiation and maintenance of fibrillation and
defibrillation. 
In the
early 1940s, he introduced the hypothesis of defibrillation as the stimulation
of the myocardium by shock. This was in contrast to the dominating at the time
theories of shock-induced reversible incapacitation of the myocardium. He also
introduced the concept of spatial heterogeneity of ability to respond to high-frequency
rhythms and the concept of “mother-reentry”, as foundations of development and
sustenance of fibrillation. He spent many years investigating optimization of
electrical stimulation therapy. In the early 1950s Gurvich designed one of the
first commercially available transthoracic defibrillators in the world. In
1970, his work on the development and clinical implementation of electroimpulse
therapy was recognized by the prestigious in the USSR State Prize. Biphasic waveforms are now becoming commonly
accepted in defibrillation therapy, replacing monophasic waveforms used up to
now in some of the transthoracic defibrillators. A biphasic waveform, known as
the Gurvich waveform, has been used in Russian-made transthoracic
defibrillators since the early 1970s. Dr. Gurvich was not only a brilliant
investigator and engineer, but also an excellent research advisor and colleague
of many who remember him with deep gratitude and respect. Recently, his former
advisor N.A. Negovsky and his advisee M.S. Bogushevich wrote about Naum L.
Gurvich: “He was a remarkable research advisor… a kind and generous man, who
shared his vast knowledge with young scientists. His numerous pupils work in
many cities of Russia”.
Igor Efimov, PhD. 12/14/01