The chronicle of a family thriving in the middle of a nightmare. You'll laugh a lot more than you expect. Promise.
Monday, September 1, 2008
X Ray of Simon's Heart
We just finally got a copy of the DVD that has the image taken at the ER at John Muir. As you can see, his heart takes up a HUGE part of his chest cavity.
Thanks for posting this. I know this is an old X ray but a few things are worth noting for all those out there that are looking at it wondering what is going on. In the infant, the heart ALWAYS appears somewhat larger than it does in a normal adult X ray. Some of that enlargement, especially the cephalic ( nearer to the head) part is actually thymus- an organ which is active in immune functions in babies and goes away with age as the spleen takes over more of the duties of the immune system. Another thing you might be wondering about is why the heart looks so globular. really the heart on a chest x ray usually has less roundness to it then you see in Shimmy's heart. His heart is dilated, especailly the parts which do the most work of the blood pumping ( the ventricles). the left ventricle ( which pumps blood through the body) is the most caudal ( towards the tail end) part of the heart. on this X ray it bulges out to Shimmy's left side and sits on the left diaphragm. the right ventricle, sits more towards the spine and you can see it blobbing out a little , but it is mostly hidden by the left ventricle. Hopefully this helps for anyone interested in knowing what they are looking at.
Normal Chest X Ray
1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. I know this is an old X ray but a few things are worth noting for all those out there that are looking at it wondering what is going on.
In the infant, the heart ALWAYS appears somewhat larger than it does in a normal adult X ray. Some of that enlargement, especially the cephalic ( nearer to the head) part is actually thymus- an organ which is active in immune functions in babies and goes away with age as the spleen takes over more of the duties of the immune system. Another thing you might be wondering about is why the heart looks so globular. really the heart on a chest x ray usually has less roundness to it then you see in Shimmy's heart. His heart is dilated, especailly the parts which do the most work of the blood pumping ( the ventricles). the left ventricle ( which pumps blood through the body) is the most caudal ( towards the tail end) part of the heart. on this X ray it bulges out to Shimmy's left side and sits on the left diaphragm. the right ventricle, sits more towards the spine and you can see it blobbing out a little , but it is mostly hidden by the left ventricle. Hopefully this helps for anyone interested in knowing what they are looking at.
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