Heart Disease Education in the MEGA Heart
Dr. Travis: You’ve see actual human organs like kidneys, livers even lungs on the show. The cameraman will wear rubber gloves to handle them, but you don’t often see a heart you can actually walk through. We have cardiologist Stephanie Coulter from the Texas Heart Institute at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston. She's going to give us a personal tour of the Mega Heart. Right now, let’s pretend that Dr. Coulter is a red blood cell or she's blood that that doesn’t have enough oxygen right now. So she's going to the heart. She's center oxygen to the rest of the body. And she's walking us into the heart.
Dr. Stephanie: So follow me, I'm a blue red blood cell. And I am moving into the right atrium and here you can see some pathology that is a common finding in the heart where we see that some of the blood has clotted abnormally and is stuck to the wall of the heart. And this is called the thrombus which can cause the clots to migrate into the lungs which is a common cause of death in hospitalized patients.
We’re going to enter the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve which is this floppy white material. When the heart pumps, the blood moves forward and the valve opens and when the heart pumps again, it closes and keeps the blood from moving backwards. Follow me. We’re going to enter the left ventricle.
Dr. Lisa: This is so cool.
Dr. Travis: Stephanie, you're like a red blood cell. I love this.
Dr. Stephanie: You see in here is an infection most commonly of the mitral valve and its called mitral valve endocarditis where there's a big infection of the valve’s tissue and the tissue is surrounding it. And often times, this can be fatal and may require heart valve replacement therapy. Follow me and we’re going to lead the heart into the aorta.
Now the aorta is the largest blood vessel of the body. It takes the red blood out of the left ventricle and pumps it under high pressure into the body, so that your tissues have plenty of oxygen. When this aorta becomes enlarged or dilated, we call that an aneurism.
Dr. Travis: Dr. Coulter will tell us what we’re seeing there.
Dr. Stephanie: On the outside of the heart is where all the blood vessels that supply the heart are located. And there are zones here. The red blood red vessels are the arteries of the heart. And the purple blue blood vessels are the veins of the heart. And when these arteries that supply the heart muscle become corroded with plaque and obstructed by cholesterol build up, it’s seen here in yellow. And it’s these plaques that lead to heart attacks. And when a heart attack happens which is really the number one killer of Americans still in our society today, they may be requiring some medical intervention.
Dr. Travis: So how is that heart doing in there, Stephanie?
Dr. Stephanie: This is one is actually a lot bigger and softer than the typical heart. It’s a lot warmer. And in the native setting, the heart is warm and got filled with blood and it’s connected to the body.
Dr. Travis: Well, really and thank you for our own personal tour of the Mega Heart. We also want to thank the folks at medical inflatable exhibit.
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