This was fun!

(Borrowed from the other blog-november entry)

Dextrocardia refers to the heart being situated on the right side of the body. Dextrocardia Situs Inversus refers to the heart being a mirror image situated on the right side. For all visceral organs to be mirrored, the correct term is Dextrocardia Situs Inversus Totalis.

Dextrocardia is believed^[1] to occur in approximately 1 in 12,019 people, while one of 30 of these will have Situs Inversus. Totalis occurs in approximately 1 in 5,000 of Dextrocardia Situs Inversus.

Kartagener’s Syndrome occurs in approximately 1 in 25 of Totalis. This disorder affects the sinus and bronchial cilia causing constant sinus and bronchial symptoms that medication can not rectify. With Kartagener’s both are usually present all year rather than being seasonal.

Although statistically people with Dextrocardia Situs Inversus do not have any medical problems from the disorder, some are prone to a number of bowel, esophagus, bronchial and cardiac problems. Some of these conditions can be life threatening if left unchecked.(from wiki).

English Translation:

You know the human body goes through all kinds of evolution while developing in the womb. There is all kinds of cells getting sloughed off, new types of cells forming, tissues differentiating, limbs, organs, organ systems forming one after the other.

And quite a few organs are formed from different places. A striking example would be the male germ cells(cells of the scrotum). They are formed near you back. And slowly,they are pushed out by the time you are born. The kidneys are formed in a lower position-three types of them of increasing sophistication,and they are raised to a higher level. The pancreas forms forward to backward round the gut and it rotates, joins, and settles on the left. etc etc.

Similarly, the heart,that old ticker. We all studied it has these 4 rooms,chambers. Top 2 and bottom 2. And the kicker is this. The atria(the top 2) are below the ventricles(bottom 2) during the embryological development. And in a forward backward axis. It is later tilted to the left right axis.

Now, to cut the bull shit..

This guy, a diabetic patient, must have stressed out a bit at work and did not have a proper meal. His insulin caused him to go hypoglycemic and he was brought to the hospital with symptoms of irritability and impaired perception of surroundings. Obscenities flew left and right from his mouth until we gave him glucose which settled him.

Precautionary ECGs are taken for all older patients with non specific symptoms and this guy's ECG taken 3-4 times was showing the same reverse pattern. And when it was confirmed by listening to his heart, that it lay on the other side,everybody in the room was excited. We got an X ray done and it's there at the top of the article to see. This was quite fun.

Oh yea, don't worry,he is 55 years old and he didin't even know of this till we told him.As you can find out from google,dextrocardia can go unnoticed and free of problems many times. Oh and yea,that's the hand of yours truly in that picture.

(Diaphragmatic eventration coming up soon.Stay tuned)