From the moment of birth to the moment of death, the human heart beats 100,000 times in a day, about 35 million times in a year, and in an average lifetime, more than 2.5 billion times. The muscles of the heart work hard to pump blood throughout the body - about 48 million gallons (184,086,000 liters) by the age of 70. In this issue of Vanderbilt Medicine, we take a look at the heart, and the cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who spend their days caring for and studying this incredibly powerful organ.
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WRITTEN BY NANCY HUMPHREY
ILLUSTRATION BY PETE MCARTHUR
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Doctors and researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are offering some of the best heart care in the Southeast, especially for heart failure, and are looking at new ways to provide optimal care for all heart patients and for novel ways to help prevent heart disease in the first place.
"Vanderbilt's cardiology program has offered a robust and comprehensive program in the management of advanced heart failure for years, and is one of the referral sites in the state and region for patients with severe heart failure," says Douglas Vaughan, M.D., C. Sidney Burwell Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. "We have a growing heart failure patient population out there, thousands of patients," he said. continued.. |
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