Systolic time intervals (STI), known for a long time, were revived in the early 1960s by Arnold Weissler. The first important papers came from him; they eval- uated STI measurements in larger populations, established norms, and compared STI measurements with other invasive methods. Since then, several hundred ex- cellent papers have appeared using and evaluating STI measurements for myo- cardial function studies. These have appeared in prominent cardiologic journals throughout the world as well as in the anesthesiologic and pediatric medical literature. When consent of subjects to medical...