This Friday was an especially busy morning. When I met up with Dr. Nguyen at the Heart and Vascular Institute elevators, we immediately rushed off to attend a presentation, our hands kept warm by our cafe mochas as we briskly walked to our destination. Shortly after we got into the room, a 72-slide collection of information on carotid artery stenosis intervention commenced. The left and right carotid arteries carry oxygenated blood directly to the brain, making it fairly important, and stenosis is the tightening of blood vessels. So, the presentation was about different interventional methods for vessel tightening in that area. The two main contenders for intervention in the area are stents and endarterectomies-both have their benefits and drawbacks, which became extremely apparent once the doctors began to argue after the presentation had ended. No good fix-all exists for different arterial blockages, so we'll just have to wait and see what sorts of developments come along.
At 8:00, we headed over to valve conference, which is when the cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons meet up to discuss individual post-op patients. It ran much longer than usual, stretching to around two hours. One of the most interesting cases they discussed was that of a person with a quadricuspid valve. Normal valves in the heart have three pieces to them, called leaflets, that section off the chambers of the heart. They open and close when blood needs to be pumped through them. This patient had an extremely rare defect that caused one of his valves (I believe it was his aortic valve) to have four leaflets, putting him at a higher risk for a variety of other heart diseases. The patient is getting a valve replacement soon, which is a surgery that I wish I could see- that would be a really unique experience, simply because his/her condition is so rare. It was definitely a fun morning in the hospital.
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