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How Leonardo gave top surgeon change of heart
London Times ^ | 9/28/05 | Dalya Alberge

Posted on 09/29/2005 6:49:35 PM PDT by wagglebee

HIS drawings, diagrams and maps have excited and inspired us for half a millennium. Now once more Leonardo da Vinci has proved that he was far ahead of his time — and ours.

A leading heart and lung specialist has been inspired by anatomical discoveries made by Leonardo 500 years ago to change the way he conducts certain operations. Francis Wells, consultant cardiac surgeon at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, said yesterday that he had had a “eureka moment” as he pored over drawings and notes by the artist in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.

Mr Wells was studying Leonardo’s intricate observations of all the individual components of the heart — the way the valves open and close, the expansion and contraction of the muscles and the flow of blood in and out. The revelatory moment came as he looked at the artist’s exploration of how the blood flow affects the closure mechanism of the mitral valve, which controls the direction of blood. Leonardo showed an extraordinary understanding of the mechanism of the valve closure and the integrity of the valve structure. Until now, repairs involved narrowing the diameter of the valve, which in turn restricted the flow of blood.

With Leonardo’s understanding of the importance of the opening and closing phases of the valve, Mr Wells has worked out how to restore the valve’s normal and full variability in opening and closing properly.

“That has been a big step forward,” he said. “We hadn’t thought carefully enough about the importance of the opening phase of the valve on normal heart function to allow extremes of exercise. Leonardo worked it out in the 1500s. This has brought about a significant change in the surgical approach to this valve which I hope will influence other surgeons in the world.”

He added: “What Leonardo was saying about the shape of the valve is important. It means we can repair this valve in a better way. The knowledge that he demonstrated 500 years ago has been lying fallow ever since.” Mr Wells has returned the mitral valve towards its normal functional state — not simply a corrected state — in operations on 80 patients so far.

“It’s a complete rethink of the way we do the mitral valve operation,” he said.

Each patient has reported a dramatic improvement and an increase in their exercise tolerance, he said. “The mitral repair does enhance people’s quality of life to that degree. It allows a dramatic improvement in clinical status,” he said.

Operations on the mitral valve are particularly complex. The valve, one of four within the heart, is like a door that opens and closes. In closing, the valve stops blood going the wrong way. In opening, it allows the heart to fill with blood.

The valve has two openings, flaps of tissue that arise from a circular orifice in the heart. The flaps fold in and out like butterfly wings.

If it stops functioning properly, the limited amount of blood flowing through the heart is also limited in reaching the rest of the body. The flaps then become like swing doors that open both ways and the valve starts to leak, leaving the heart unable to push itself to the normal extremes.

The patient quickly becomes breathless and drained of energy with the slightest exertion. Until now, surgeons have narrowed the diameter of the valve by removing a square portion of one of the flaps. Now, by closing the gaps on each side of the prolapsing flap and cutting out the excess tissue in a V-shape, he can make the valve competent again.

He said: “Before, people have tended to do what they were taught. They didn’t look at the normal function of the valve. Now patients have ended up with a valve that works like the one God gave them.”

Mr Wells and Leonardo feature in The Secret Of Drawing, which begins on BBC Two on October 8.

RENAISSANCE MAN

- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect and engineer

- Anticipated the parachute, helicopter, armoured car, paddle boats, contact lenses, submarine

- The Church forbade post-mortem dissection but he dissected more than 30 bodies

- Pioneered the High Renaissance style of balance, serenity, and technical accomplishment nearly a generation before Michelangelo and Raphael


Leonardo's drawing, with the mitral valve at the front of the heart,
provided a 'eureka moment' for Francis Wells


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: art; arthistory; davinci; genius; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; heartsurgery; leonardo; leonardodavinci; medicine; mitralprolapse; mitralvalve; science
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To: Leo Carpathian; em2vn

Tesla was definitely one of the most brilliant, and usually the most forgotten also. what is this tesla cult thing?


21 posted on 09/29/2005 8:16:58 PM PDT by wafflehouse (the hell you say!)
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To: wagglebee

Marconi is one of my personal favorite inventors. Without him, how would El Rushbo conduct his show? Morse code?


22 posted on 09/29/2005 8:20:30 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: metmom

My personal vote goes to Newton. Without question. Nobody else even comes close.

http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Isaac_Newton_(Alan_Sinder)


23 posted on 09/29/2005 8:29:15 PM PDT by spinestein (Forget the Golden Rule. Remember the Brazen Rule.)
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To: metmom
Newton INVENTED calculus, did he not?

Liebniz would take exception to that.

24 posted on 09/29/2005 8:47:33 PM PDT by Capriole (I don't have any problems that can't be solved by more chocolate or more ammunition.)
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To: wagglebee
btt 4 l8r



25 posted on 09/29/2005 8:54:19 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: wagglebee

Every so often, a truly great mind comes along to bring an illumination. Da Vinci was one of those.


26 posted on 09/29/2005 8:56:49 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
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To: quantim

I agree...Newton. The man gave us specific instructions, along with a math he invented to compute the answers, on how bodies in the universe work.

It took Sputnik to prove him right.


27 posted on 09/29/2005 9:03:46 PM PDT by Fledermaus (I've totally given up on the possibility any politicians can govern....left or right or middle.)
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To: wagglebee

John Adams was the genius behind the Massachussetts constitution upon which the US Constitution was based. Pretty good intellect, I would say!


28 posted on 09/29/2005 9:10:33 PM PDT by Siena Dreaming
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To: wagglebee

Leibniz, Boole, Babbage, von Neumann...so many.


29 posted on 09/29/2005 9:10:54 PM PDT by Free Vulcan
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To: metmom

I believe that Newton solved a previously unsolvable problem using antidifferential equations, thereby developing differential calculus. The Greeks actully started the whole mess by trying to solve the unsolvable, ruining many budding mathemeticians.


30 posted on 09/29/2005 9:11:15 PM PDT by par4 (If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything)
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To: Siena Dreaming

My money is on James Madison.


31 posted on 09/29/2005 9:12:58 PM PDT by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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To: Right Wing Assault
I almost sounds as if Leonardo operated on living animals and people to get the info he got. How could he understand valve motion and blood flow otherwise? A dead heart doesn't seem like it would give up a lot of details.

A living heart would be pretty hard to study, actually, it'd be shaking and squirting blood all over, obscuring the examination. And cutting a living heart enough to get a good view of the valve in action would result in abnormal or non-functional operation.

Da Vinci could have cut the valve area out of a fresh human or animal heart, and then poured clear liquids through it from different directions to study how it operated.

32 posted on 09/29/2005 9:24:12 PM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: wagglebee

Reminds me a program I saw recently on the History Channel about Galen the physician. He was performing cataract surgeries in ancient Rome. But the technology was completely lost in Medieval Europe.


33 posted on 09/29/2005 9:33:03 PM PDT by GVnana
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To: spinestein

the quote says "since Newton" so one assumes he's place Newton, then Maxwell.


34 posted on 09/29/2005 9:34:30 PM PDT by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them, or they like us?)
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To: quantim; Fledermaus; spinestein; metmom; wagglebee
My money is still on Newton as the greatest recorded brain.

I'd give Da Vinci the edge over Newton. There's no doubt that Newton was an absolute genius at mathematics, and this gave him some fundamental insights into the mathematical relationships of physics, but -- and I in no way mean this in disrespect -- mathematical geniuses are a dime a dozen, even if most of them never achieve any public recognition.

Da Vinci, however, was an innovater and world-class master of so *many* diverse fields, each one of them a career in themselves, each one of which would have insured his lasting fame if that one field was the only one in which he had made his accomplishments.

Painting, sculpting, architecture, anatomy, engineering, mechanics, optics, hydraulics, drafting, warfare, mathematics... He even made discoveries in meteorology, geology, and paleontology.

Newton was was one of the all-time greats in mathematics. Da vinci was one of the all-time greats in *everything* he put his mind to, including pursuits which are generally considered different "kinds" of genius -- how often do we expect brilliant artists to be scientific geniuses as well, or vice versa?

Still, the case could be made that Newton achieved more in mathematics than Da Vinci did in any one of his many fields of study, but the kind of versatile genius which can master everything it contemplates gets my vote over the kind which excels, no matter how superbly, in a narrower discipline.

35 posted on 09/29/2005 9:58:03 PM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: wagglebee; Coleus; blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; StayAt HomeMother; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; ...
Thanks Waggs. Definitely a GGG ping. Faulty mitral valves are generally congenital, and are one of the few heart problems that disproportionately affects women. Bad cases can kill in the patient's 40s, and can be overlooked, finally being found in the autopsy. Ultrasounds are sufficiently refined nowadays that the problem can be detected without a catheter look-see. Coleus, a health topic ping.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

36 posted on 09/29/2005 10:18:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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To: AmericanVictory

That's true.


37 posted on 09/29/2005 10:19:57 PM PDT by spinestein (Forget the Golden Rule. Remember the Brazen Rule.)
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To: Max in Utah
I vote for James Madison, the Father of our Constitution. Now that's one outstanding piece of work!

Amazingly enough, virtually everythinbg in our Constitution can be found or foreshadowed in the greatest legal work in Anglo-American history--Blackstone's commentaries on the common law (1760s). Even the 2nd amendment is there--right to bear arms for personal defense AND defense against tyranny.
38 posted on 09/29/2005 11:40:27 PM PDT by fqued (You don't have to fight every fight, you don't have to win every battle.)
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To: quantim

Might you include Aristotle as the greatest polymath?

Would you consider Thomas Acquinas as the greatest philosopher/theologian?


39 posted on 09/29/2005 11:42:59 PM PDT by fqued (You don't have to fight every fight, you don't have to win every battle.)
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To: Sam Cree; Liz; Joe 6-pack; woofie; vannrox; giotto; iceskater; Conspiracy Guy; Dolphy; ...

Art ping.

This is almost an art/science ping, but I found it fascinating.

Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off this list.


40 posted on 09/30/2005 3:24:24 AM PDT by Republicanprofessor
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