Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: echocardiogram

  • General Robert E. Lee’s myocardial infarction: Did illness impact the Battle of Gettysburg?

    Lloyd KleinSan Francisco, California, United States Ascribing the loss of the Battle of Gettysburg to an illness of General Robert E. Lee became common among historians thirty years ago. The legend of his apparently poor judgment in ordering Pickett’s Charge, when appraised in view of his other outstanding military results, has baffled historians, thus appearing…

  • Wounding words

    Charlotte GrinbergCambridge, Massachusetts, USA In college, I majored in anthropology. I was interested in understanding the political, social, legal, and economic forces that influence behavior. As language is inherently related to consciousness and culture, its study was central to my learning. In my medical anthropology course, for example, we spent hours discussing the linguistic difference…

  • The story of a scar

    Michael EllmanWilmette, Illinois, United States The six-inch scar is high over my left femoral artery in my inner thigh. It is healing well now and is pain free. The scar marks the place where a vascular surgeon extracted a clot that was blocking the popliteal artery. “I fished it out for you,” he told me.…

  • Echocardiogram: The first ultrasound picture of the moving heart

    Göran WettrellSweden The developments in ultrasound and microwave technology during World War II stimulated further research in the early 1950s. Ultrasound had been predicted to be useful in visualizing the organs of the human body, and with the beginnings of cardiac surgery there arose a need for better preoperative diagnosis, especially for correcting mitral stenosis…