Abstract
Any understanding of cardiac disease requires the clear appreciation of normal cardiac tissues at the macroscopic and microscopic level. It is practical to commence the book with this subject, and this chapter is solely devoted to the normal adult heart. The chapter components include the gross architecture of the heart, dealing with the external and internal tissues and their architecture. Each chamber is individually considered in terms of the anatomical landmarks, in the sequence akin to blood passing through the heart, through the different chambers. The histological features of the myocardium, as assessed by routine and special histological stains, are considered. In addition, internal structures are reviewed, both at the light microscopy and the ultrastructural level. Specialised tissues, such as the cardiac conduction system and the cardiac valves, are also individually reviewed. There is specific commentary on the cardiac vasculature.
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Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks are expressed to Mr. B. Wagner, Senior Electron Microscopist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals for his expertise and photography of ultrastructural histology in this chapter.
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Suvarna, S.K. (2019). The Normal Adult Heart and Methods of Investigation. In: Suvarna, S. (eds) Cardiac Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24560-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24560-3_1
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