[ad_1]
The body of a woman who has recently been given to a medical school in Oregon provides an anatomy lesson much stranger than that expected by instructors.
When students from Oregon's Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) dissected the corpse of a 99-year-old woman, they found that her liver and abdominal organs were transposed – as if she had returned on a vertical axis – while his heart was oriented Normally, left, OHSU representatives said in a statement.
This is known as "situs inversus with levocardia", and it affects about 1 in 22,000 births, according to OHSU. But unlike most people with this rare disease, the woman has not experienced any harmful effects in her lifetime. In fact, she did not know that some of her organs were not where they were supposed to be, her family told OHSU. [27 Oddest Medical Cases]
The remains donated belonged to Rose Marie Bentley, who died in October 2017. Her unusual case was presented today (April 8) in a poster at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists at Experimental Biology , in Orlando, Florida.
The instructors had never seen this type of organ inversion in an anatomy lab before, "and it 's so rare, I'm not sure of any". see another one, "co-wrote Cameron Walker, assistant professor of anatomy at OHSU. Anatomic Service Center, said Live Science.
"Transposed from right to left"
Bentley's body arrived at OHSU in the spring of 2018, destined for an anatomy class, according to Walker.
When students working on Bentley's body opened the chest cavity, "they found blood vessels around the heart that were of different orientation," Walker said. He and his colleagues checked the heart, but he did not seem to have any flaws.
"True enlightenment came when we arrived in the abdominal cavity," Walker said. "When it was opened, we could see that his organs had been transposed." The liver, instead of being on the right side of the body, was located along the midline, with a wider left lobe. The stomach and spleen, typically left, were on the right.
The donor's liver was oriented in the center, with an enlarged left lobe; his stomach, spleen and pancreas were on the right.
Credit: Courtesy of OSHU
The information provided by the donor and her family suggests that Bentley experienced "robust health" until he turned 90, according to the authors. Over the years, she underwent several surgeries: the doctors removed her appendix, gall bladder and uterus. Indeed, the surgeon who performed the appendectomy told him at the time that the organ was on the left side, not on the right side.
But the other two surgeons did not mention any abnormalities in Bentley's anatomy, and her family said neither she nor any of her relatives suspected anything was wrong, said the researchers. researchers in their presentation.
Aside from the inverted positions of the organs, they "did not seem in any way unusual, and she enjoyed a normal function," the scientists said.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the genetic factors responsible for situs inversus and levocardia are complex, and what exactly happens during the development of the fetus, which causes some organs to develop in an inverted position, is unknown. .
In many cases of situs inversus, all organs, including the heart, are transposed and people generally have no associated health problems, says the NIH. However, if most of the organs are inverted but the heart is not, this can cause a growing fetus to develop abnormalities along the midline of the heart. "These greatly reduce the efficiency of the heart. and can cause very early heart failure failure early in life, "Walker said.
When this happens, survival in adulthood is exceptionally rare – about 1 in 50 million, the researchers wrote in their presentation. Still, Bentley lived up to 99 years and had no history of heart problems, which made his case even more incredible, the scientists concluded. [Photos: A 3D Printed Heart]
Cameron Walker (left) and his colleague in OHSU Anatomy, Mark Hankin (right), have co-presented a description of this unusual case.
Credit: OSHU
Atypical anatomy
Abnormalities such as Bentley are rare in medical school cadavers, but it is not uncommon for donated bodies to contain anatomical surprises, said Dale Ritter, principal instructor of human anatomy at the Alpert Medical School (AMS). Brown University of Rhode Island.
AMS receives about 55 cadaver donations each year, "and one in 10 will have significant deviations from what is considered a typical anatomy," Ritter told Live Science.
For example, some small muscles of the forearm and leg are sometimes not present at all, said Ritter. Patterns of branching in the arteries can also present huge variations, which can be confusing and frustrating for students trying to reconcile what they saw in the textbook illustrations with what is on the table in front of them , according to Ritter.
"We encourage students during dissections to walk around and look at other tables and other donors for that reason – the anatomy can be completely different," he explained.
Finally, the very unusual alignment of Bentley's organs has proven to be an important reminder to OHSU students that every patient is unique and that health professionals need to see their patients as individuals. Walker said.
"There is no single practice for everyone, where you can always use the same steps and the same treatments to help everyone in the same way," he added.
Originally published on Science live.
[ad_2]
Source link