Visualizing Postmortem Human Heart Valves

Surgical procedures upon the cardiac valves for postrheumatic afflictions have become commonplace in the past few years. These procedures consist of opening a stenotic valve or with open-heart technique closing a regurgitant valve and removing deposits of calcium. To appreciate dysfunctions of these valves and to diagnose them correctly before surgery requires a thorough understanding of the action of the heart valves. Special diagnostic studies are also needed, such as left- or right-heart catheterization and retrograde aortic valvulography.

For demonstrating to medical students and graduates the pathological variations of the cardiac valves, the authors have employed 2 simple and practical methods of animating both normal and diseased cardiac valves in autopsy material. No claim of originality is made, and we fully realize that the gradients across the valve with these techniques do not duplicate exactly the complete physiological conditions in vivo. It is believed, however, that these methods, one of