User talk:Lbeben

Welcome!

I am Wiki. I am also a lifelong student of the heart. I first learned how to perform a procedure once called cardiac output by thermodilution with an ice bucket, chilled saline syringes, a thermometer/stopwatch we called a computer and a Swan-Ganz catheter with terminal thermistor lumens when I was an Air Force medic at Keesler AFB Mississippi in 1977.

Systole has been well documented encyclopedically in volumetric terms in many texts for many years. Distinctive, original work defining Systole was first authored by Adolph Fick. Ficks' understanding of Cardiac Output led to less invasive mathematical volumetric solutions for systole such as Ejection Fraction equal to End Systolic Volume/End Diastolic Volume. EF=ESV/EDV.

Given this understanding, one can imagine mathematical inversion of Fick. Fick inverted mathematically for diastole yields Cardiac Input or Injection Fraction. IF=EDV/ESV.

In researching this topic I learned that Chagas' cardiomyopathy is a very close model to a transplanted heart in that the intrinsic sinoatrial/purkinge tree is spared and the vagal branches are selectively destroyed in an incremental fashion depending upon the parasitic burden on the host. Chagas cardiomyopathy, esophagomegaly and megacolon are becoming increasingly common in North America. Understanding that Chagas and HT both involve amputation of half the autonomic supply to the heart muscle [[Myocardium}} may represent a North and South American perspective worthy of further study of a common problem by medical scholars above and below the American equator.

We must approach the subject from different angles. Neubauer, for instance (PMID 17360992) devotes 12 pages just to the energy metabolism of the cardiomyocyte. That may be a starting point for a paragraph on energy metabolism. We then need to look at the mechanical models, and their impact on physiology. For this, a physiology textbook chapter or recent review article would be useful.

My interest in the heart

As per your question, just for starters http://helicalheart.com/new_video.shtml the heart seems to be a spiral. This video for me was like watching Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion Map animation ( http://friday.westnet.com/~crywalt/dymaxion_2003/dymaxion_2003.swf ). All the models we have of the heart describe it so very compartmentalized and boxlike, linear. Just like Bucky's map showing us how the landmasses are indeed connected in a one-world-island, and how perspective really shifts perception/comprehension (the model is not the territory). Cheers, Gheemaker (talk) 06:37, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

In my opinion, the description of the unfolding of the myocardium by Torrent-Guasp is very close to bedrock science. This Spanish scientist somehow managed to show the entire myocardium laid out as an elongated strip of muscle. I suspect Torrent-Guasp understood the rivers and tributaries of blood and electricity that run back and forth through this unique muscular tissue helix. Connection of this tissue to the Windkessel that recieves and gives the load is felt to be equally important. To me, this opened a new understanding of myocardial work leading to further research in the mechanical, vascular, and electrical components that comprise the forces of Systole and Diastole.

Re: Magnetocartography

What in the world are you trying to say? Leujohn ^(talk) 13:14, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Re: User Talk Geoffrey Wickham 1st & 11th March 2009

Hi Lbeben, Apologies for my late response to your comments on my talk page. In reply I must point out that I am a biomedical engineer & not a clinician. Your suggestion of cardiac pacing by way of a 'web' of electrodes between the pericardium and myocardium is novel. It is possible that such an arrangement may have haemodynamic benefits, however as it would require the high risk procedure of opening the thoracic cavity I believe it would be clinically unacceptable compared to the low risk procedure of transvenous placement of electrodes in the RV or atrium. Best wishes Geoffrey Wickham (talk) 00:41, 24 May 2009 (UTC)