Category: Cardiology
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Takotsubo syndrome in art: A tale of broken hearts
Rafiq YusifliSevil YusifliBaku, Azerbaijan The role of emotional factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases has long been a focus of attention for physicians and researchers. Some acute cardiac pathologies that arise following intense emotional stress were only defined as independent entities toward the end of the twentieth century. Takotsubo syndrome, also known as “broken…
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Earl Bakken: Pacemaker pioneer and founder of Medtronic
Ahmed NadeemChicago, Illinois, United States Earl Bakken was an electrical engineer who developed the external, battery-operated, wearable pacemaker. He was born in Minnesota in 1924 and received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. In 1949, he founded a company called Medtronic with his brother-in-law,…
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Eugenics and the perfusion pump: Lindbergh’s controversial medical legacy
Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States Following his successful solo trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of Saint Louis in 1927, aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh became an international celebrity. He was Time magazine’s very first Man of the Year in 1927, and was seen as an American hero for over a decade.1 One of Lindbergh’s greatest achievements—the…
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From bedside to bench: The discovery of calmodulinopathy
Göran WettrellLund, Sweden As a pediatrician specializing in pediatric cardiology, I met in 1982 a twelve-year-old-boy with syncope when playing football. He had four previous episode of losing consciousness during physical activity and once during a fire alarm. His resting ECG was normal but his long-term ECG registration revealed exercised-induced ventricular extrasystoles of increasing complexity.…
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Sunao Tawara
Sunao Tawara was a prominent Japanese pathologist and anatomist best known for discovering in 1906 the atrioventricular node, also known as the AV node or bundle of Tawara. This small mass of specialized cardiac muscle fibers located between the atria and ventricles of the heart is a key component of the heart’s conduction system, responsible…
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Rene Favaloro—Father of cardiac bypass surgery
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Over the last century, there have been many important contributions to medicine made by Argentinians. Of these Rene Geronimo Favaloro’s must surely be of the greatest, and his work on cardiac bypass surgery has saved countless of lives. Born of Sicilian ancestry on July 12, 1923, in La Plata, Argentina, Favaloro…
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Two giants in thoracic surgery: Clarence Crafoord and Åke Senning
Göran WettrellLund University, Sweden Clarence Crafoord Clarence Crafoord (1899–1984) was one of the most outstanding surgeons in Sweden during the twentieth century (Figure 1). He started his surgical training in the early 1920s. Postoperative complications such as obstructing pulmonary thrombosis were a frequent cause of death. In 1927, Crafoord performed two successful acute pulmonary embolectomies.1…
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Jean-Baptiste de Sénac and his early textbook on cardiology
Göran WettrellLund, Sweden William Harvey was an important figure in the early days of cardiovascular physiology. Based on meticulous observations, he published De Motu Cordis and Sanguinus in 1628 and has been proposed as the founder of physiology and cardiology.1 During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, physicians such as Raymond Vieussens (1641-1715), Giovanni-Maria…
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Heart to heart
Frank BucharHamilton, Ontario, Canada I had a heart attack on Valentine’s Day. What are the chances? Later, when I thought about the funny parts, like the undershorts I happened to be wearing, it struck me that you can find humor, like tragedy or farce, anywhere if you choose to, if you attend closely enough. My…