My Summer Work

Here are a few interesting photos that I thought I would share of my work experience. These really are quite intriguing and thus they have made it to my "awesome" findings. Yesterday and today I have spent numerous hours sifting through autopsy collections from the 70's, 80's, and 90's that WVSOM has held on to. We are in the process of cleaning out storage and organizing materials, and while doing so, we have disinterred the following cases.

(view: anterio-rostral from the apex [up and out the front])
An examined heart with a replaced tricuspid valve. This artificial replacement valve has a small sphere resembling a ping pong ball bound by four wires. When the ventricles contract, the ball is shifted cranially within the cage to seal the right atrio-ventricular junction This particular replacement is known as the caged ball design.

(view: anterio-rostral from the apex)

This is a video of us examining another heart sporting a different artificial valve known as the tilting disc. This heart has been cut open, upon autopsy, to reveal the inner muscles and chordae tendinae regulating blood flow. This valve works much like the normal water valves you see in water lines (as told by Tricia); finally our engineering and medical worlds collide!!

Both of these valves can be seen better at voila!