Contributions to cardiac pathology / by John Cockle.

  • Cockle, John, 1814-1901.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to cardiac pathology / by John Cockle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    distended and filled with clotted blood, the clot ex- tending up into the aorta. The aortic semilunar valves were thickened, cord-like, and rigid, prevent- ing closure, and admitting free regurgitation. The orifices of the coronary arteries were patent. Patches of atheroma existed in the aorta. The segments of the mitral valves were thickened and fringed with vegetations, but capable of closure; two threads from these, an inch in length, hung free in the cavity of the ventricle. The walls of the left ventricle were thickened, the chamber immensely dilated. The right ventricle was also much dilated. No marked evidence of either fatty or fibroid degeneration was observable on microscopic examination. The heart, emptied of blood, weighed sixteen ounces. There was nothing special to note in the other organs beyond a slight adhesion of old-standing between the pericardium and the lower and anterior surface of the left ventricle. The sac contained about an ounce of clear serum. Remarks by Dr. Cockle.—This case exhibits a com- paratively rare though direct result of aortic insuffi- ciency—sudden death—in its nearly purest form ; for the mitral lesion may, practically, be disregarded. The valvular incompetence resulting from the first attack of rheuma.tic fever caused dilatation and conse- cutive hypertrophy of the walls of the left ventricle. So perfect an adjustment was gradually effected, that the working of the heart was fairly well maintained for a series of years. A second attack of rheumatic fever