The Pericardium and its Diseases The pericardium is a fibrous, relatively avascular tissue surrounding the heart which connects the heart to the sternum, diaphragm, and posteriorly to the anterior mediastinum. It consists of two layers: (1) the inner serous or…
Introduction The pathogenesis of venous and arterial thrombosis is broad and at times disparate. Virchow originally described venous thrombosis under low flow (shear) with red clots, occurring around and propagating through venous valves, and consisting of red cells and fibrin…
Acknowledgments Quoted studies by the author were funded through grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Kidney Foundation of Canada/Pfizer, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Introduction Elevated blood pressure, also…
The Normal Aorta: Histology and Function The aorta is the largest artery, by caliber, in the human body. It is the conduit from the heart that extends from the thoracic cavity to the pelvic area where it bifurcates to create…
Introduction Credited to Felix Marchand in a 1904 publication, the name atherosclerosis roughly translates as ‘hardened gruel,’ This colorful term, reminiscent of other culinary metaphors in pathology, underlies many of the most feared and lethal conditions in medicine. Atherosclerosis is…
Introduction Vascular diseases extract a large toll on the human population, both in terms of mortality and quality of life. Vascular disease is in fact the leading cause of death in developed countries. Numerous pathologic conditions alter the structure and/or…
Introduction In light of the premise of angiogenesis as an organizing principle, it is not surprising that drugs that have been developed to modulate angiogenesis can be effective to treat apparently dissimilar conditions. For example, a blinding disease like wet…
Introduction The collective global impact of the spectrum of valvular heart diseases is a serious but under-recognized health problem. In the developed and rapidly developing regions of the world, calcific and degenerative valve diseases are the most prevalent valvular abnormalities…
Introduction In the 1995 World Health Organization (WHO) Definition of Cardiomyopathies , myocarditis (also called inflammatory cardiomyopathy), is defined as an ‘inflammatory disease of the myocardium associated with cardiac dysfunction’ and is listed among ‘specific cardiomyopathies.’ Myocarditis is diagnosed in vivo…
Overview of the Cardiac Conduction System The cardiac conduction system is a network of specialized cells responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of the heartbeat. Relative to the myocytes responsible for regulating cardiac contraction in a normal heart (~1 ×…