Challenges of the 21st Century: Part 1 - Diagnostic, prognostic and interventional anatomy

Abstract

Gross anatomy is a fundamental component of the medical school curriculum, anatomy research and cardiology. There remain new and continued applications of anatomical research that are critical to maintain (and improve) the levels of medical care in humans and animals. To demonstrate the role of continued application of anatomical research in the new frontier of anatomical sciences, the authors present a novel and groundbreaking approach to examine lesions of the coronary arteries. The subject cohort patients who underwent a coronary angiogram were screened and the angiograms were selected if there were one or two de novo mild-to-moderate lesions in any of the coronary arteries. Patients with prior coronary bypass graft surgery, percutaneous coronary interventions or ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, were excluded. Coronary angiograms were examined frame-by-frame. Challenging concepts and questions were proposed, discussed and answered. The format that the authors use is a four-part series of anatomical/case-based discussions that present the clinical context, the anatomical findings and the possible mechanism based on hydraulics and physics of the cavitation phenomenon. This approach is innovative and provocative and brings fresh air and new ideas into the arena of learning and research in anatomy.