What is a monophasic action potential recorded by the Franz contact electrode?
Michael R. Franz* Georgetown University Medical Center, Arrhythmia Service and Research, VA Medical Center, 50 Irving St, NW, 20422 Washington, DC, United States * Tel.: +1 202 745 8389; fax: +1 202 339 0786. Email address: michael.r.franz{at}verizon.net’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Received 26 November 2004; accepted 22 December 2004 After over 20 years of successful use of the Franz contact electrode technique by many others and myself (over 1000 publications to date), the recent paper by Kondo et al. [1] claims that it is not the tip electrode, but rather the distant-from-tip or “indifferent” electrode that records the monophasic action potential (MAP). The introduction starts out by staging a contradiction between the classical MAP theory and the one stated by Franz [2] when in fact there is none really stated. The wording is confusing throughout their text and, in my view, of little help to foster the understanding of the complex issue of MAP genesis and recording. More important, the
