Figures & data
Figure 1. Left: the popular representation of the human heart. Right: a plastic model of a real human heart from the anterior view. The two forms are only vaguely resembling each other.
Figure 2. Appearance of the iconic shadow of the heart immediately after injection of the contrast dye in the right coronary artery, while the path of the left coronary system is evidenced by the path of the microcatheter previously deployed in a context of a retrograde approach (left anterior oblique projection 30°). These images are regularly obtained at coronary angiography performed during recanalization of a CTO. Contemporaneous visualisation of the right and left coronary trees form the exact shape of what we have been used to recognise as ‘the human heart’.
Figure 3. Anterior surface of the heart, after injection of plastic materials (Geon Latex 576 and Neoprene 842A). The obtained vascular cast clearly resembles the iconic shape of the heart. Reproduced from Baroldi G, Scomazzoni G. Coronary Circulation in the Normal and Pathological Heart. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army; 1967.
