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 Leonardos 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 artists 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 Leonardos understanding of the importance of the opening and closing phases of the valve, Mr Wells has worked out how to restore the valves normal and full variability in opening and closing properly.
That has been a big step forward, he said. We hadnt 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.
Its 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 peoples 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 didnt 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
Tesla is being proclaimed as by the cult worshippers as the greatest mind every. They claim many of his inventions were stolen from him and claimed by others. The radio comes first to mind.
The Tesla coil is claimed to be the greatest invention in history by those who worship Tesla. It is claimed that vested interestes are keeping the value of the coil from being passed on to mankind.
There are a number of Tesla devotees who feel that much of Tesla's work has been deliberately hidden or suppressed because the applications of his work would bring about energy independence FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. He also was reputed to have created the first directed energy beam weapons but had trouble aiming them....some wags(get your tin foil hat on for this one) even claim that on one such testing, that it went off at the same time as the Tunguska Siberian....a real oops moment.
Tesla allowed himself only a few close friends. Among them were the writers Robert Underwood Johnson, Mark Twain, and Francis Marion Crawford. He was quite impractical in financial matters and an eccentric, driven by compulsions and a progressive germ phobia. But he had a way of intuitively sensing hidden scientific secrets and employing his inventive talent to prove his hypotheses. Tesla was a godsend to reporters who sought sensational copy but a problem to editors who were uncertain how seriously his futuristic prophecies should be regarded. Caustic criticism greeted his speculations concerning communication with other planets, his assertions that he could split the Earth like an apple, and his claim of having invented a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles (400 kilometres).
His papers are supposedly in a museum in Belgrade....but cultist devotees feel that the real "juicy stuff" has been deliberately hidden and suppressed!
Maxwell, smart?
Sorry, Don Adams passing is still on my mind. *grin*
This *is* fascinating. You can learn a lot on this website; sometimes it makes up for the time we waste!
I think I will forward the article to my close friend who is a surgeon.
Thanks for the post. Fascinating!
Thank you! I was racking my brain trying to remember who the other guy was that claimed credit for inventing calculus. You just saved me a brain cramp (or a Google search at the very least).
Hiram Maxim...Population control
Hiram Maxim...Population control
save
Hey...I'm with you, I was just explaining to a previous poster who was asking about this Tesla cult thing...
It becomes cult like when you have some devotees claiming that Tesla's energy weapon or wave propagation/ manipulation experiments may have caused the Tunguska blast!
Way cool...
Thank you for your posts. Raising Tesla's name always seems to call up a broad spectrum of reactions. That in itself is impressive and makes me all the more curious!
In certain darker quarters of our various governments, especially where black ops or black projects are in volved his name and accomplishments probably make folks sweat with fear as they perfect certain aspects of his ground breaking accomplishments!
I think that's why you see such a broad range of reactions at his name....this man was into "everything", including the possibility of interplanetary communication at a time when it was not fashionable to discuss these things.
Tesla was most certainly into things that certain folk don't want openly discussed....I'll wager there are some Freepers who frequent this board that know of some of these things...but hey. I'm just glad he invented AC transmission personally!
That's about my humor level!
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