The physiology of the normal jugular venous pulse contours and the pathophysiology of their alterations will be discussed
in this chapter. Mechanisms of venous return and right heart filling have been of clinical interest from the days of Harvey
and Purkinje (1,2). Long before Chauveau and Marey published their recordings of the venous pulse, Lancisi had described “the systolic fluctuation
of the external jugular vein” in a patient with tricuspid regurgitation (3,4).