A medical condition where the pulse wave has an abnormal upstroke with a secondary pulse notch or irregularity visible when the pulse is recorded.
From anacrotic + -ism. The term was developed in 19th-century medicine as physicians began using mechanical devices to record pulse patterns and could actually see these irregularities.
Before instruments existed, doctors just felt pulses with fingers—but once they invented pulse-recording machines, they could see weird bumps in the wave and needed a name for it, leading to anacrotism.
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