Kyoto Heart Echo Square

Today, let me allow to introduce a website call "Kyoto Heart Echo Square". I am one of the managers of this content. You can access here.

This content was launched in June 21th, 2015, for the sake of echocardiographic education. As the proverb goes, one picture is more valuable than 100 words. The same goes with the field of echocardiography; seeing is believing.

Ultrasonographers in high volume centers may experience lots of different kinds of rare heart diseases, but most sonographers are not lucky enough to have such good chances. This is why I was determined to create a website, in which everyone is able to learn echocardiography by sharing videos, wherever you work and whenever you want.

As a result of little request to upload echo movies, I have sent videos on my own with a pace of 1 or 2 posts a month. This slow pace, however, does not seem to make the website attractive. More new echo movies, at least every week, may be required to catch many followers of the content, I guess.

So,  from now on, I am going to upload more frequently. But I still wonder if I could keep on posting videos at a high rate like that, since I know that I get tired easily.

I look forward to reading this blog again months later.

A Fourth heart sound

The heart has a lot of different kinds of sounds. The combination varies, making it more complex to figure our what the heart is implying. The diversity may discourage physicians to learn auscultation. Nowadays, there are few cardiologists who are boating of skills enough to realize the heart sounds.

In my opinion, however, heart sounds are so impressive and still worth learning. In order not to get lost in the deep field of heart sounds, focusing on a specific sound may be a good way for a beginner.

A fourth heart sound, as shown in the left phonocardiogram with apexcardiography, is one of my recommendations among sounds produced by the heart.

The fourth sound is common in hypertrophied ventricles, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and aortic stenosis. It should also be kept in mind that it can be audible in the acute phase of ischemic heart disease.

To my knowledge, there is no definitive evidence to support that the presence of the fourth heart sound is associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Splatoon

Take a look at the picture and guess what my son is doing.

There are 3 choices.
  A. He is playing a video game alone.
  B. He is playing an online game alone.
  C. He is playing an online game with his friend.

My son is alone in the room and playing an online game, Splatoon, chatting with his friend as a team via the Internet. So, the answer is C.

Let me explain the situation. First, he has an ear-phone in the right ear and a microphone that are connected to his smartphone. Second, his friend is playing the same game at a different place using the same system. Third, making a strategy as a team, they are fighting opponents in the world of Splatoon.

Looking back my childhood, a situation like that was completely beyond our imagination. It did not exist even in sci-fi. What an advanced technology!

My son is one of the Millennials; he was born in 2000. The concept that the Millennial generation is remarkable makes sense to me, because they are digital native. It seems like they have an inborn talent of how to adapt to new technologies without hesitating.

I am really looking forward to seeing what on earth their kids would be like. Is there any room to advance more?

Bird droppings

I am walking on the way to my hospital at 5:20 AM. It is a little bit cool but refreshing as a result of heavy rain before dawn. I love my residential area after rain because of the effect on nature as an energizer.

All of a sudden, I feel something hit my left cheek. I think that it would be a flying insect or bug. However, I notice something soft on my face when I touch the hit-point with my right hand for no specific reason.

It is white, partially green. It takes no time before I am sure that the stuff is kind of bird droppings. Luckily, it has no odor. I wipe it with some tissue paper and, after I arrive at the station, wash myself with soap.

I am shocked with the bad luck, but before long I start to think that good luck is still on my side because the word "dropping" has the same pronunciation as the word "luck" in Japanese. Maybe, it would be a good day for me today.

・・・・・

After work, I told the story to my kids and wife during dinner time, saying "Positive thinking makes you happy." My daughter asked me, "Then, Dad, how was your day, today? Anything good happened?" I answered, "Nothing lucky, but no trouble all day. What a nice day."

She started watching her favorite YouTuber, Kinoshita Yuka or Japanese female big eater, on my iPad with no specific response to my words.

Beetle Larvae

Do you like larvae? Of course not?

Then, how about beetle larvae? YES!

This weekend, my younger son asked me to take him to a place where there are beetle larvae. This is because he has learned about them in school. One of his advantages is that he is curious about everything.

First, we went to a park close to my house, with no success. Next place we headed to was a larger, natural park, which is 15-minute away by car. His big brother and I once caught some beetle larvae in the forest of the park.

It was not easy to find out larvae there ― fighting against tons of mosquitoes! ― but we managed to get several larvae in one hour. He was really excited, so was I.

Later on that day, his cousins visited us. To my surprise, he gave 2 or 3 larvae to them with a big smile. I am proud of his behavior; sharing fun with others is paramount no matter how young you are.

The problem is whether the larvae were male beetles or not remains unclear. I am sure that he hopes a male beetle because of its cool, big horns.

Time will tell, so wait and see, my little boy.

200th Anniversary

The stethoscope was invented by Laennec, a French physicist, 200 years ago.

The name "stethoscope" was derived from the two Greek words, stethos (chest) and skopein (to see).

The concept of the stethoscope came from an incidence with a young woman on September 13th, 1816, when he hesitated to put his ear on her chest and then rolled paper into a kind of cylinder and applied it to the chest and his ear.

Laennec also found the second heart sound for the first time, although this does not seem to be well known.

I am a big fan of the stethoscope because it enables cardiologists to communicate directly with the heart. The heart is so talkative, murmuring a lot in the center of the body.

Nothing gets me excited more than attempting to understand the heart language.

Children's Day

This year, May 5th is a national holiday in Japan. We call it Children's day.

On the children's day, my daughter, my younger son, and I visited my parents who live in another prefecture, roughly 100 km north of my house. Needless to say, I was born and raised there. I have always been cherishing an period of 19 years I spent as a child and adolescence with my parents.

I took my two kids to my elementary school. Actually, this is my first time in almost three decades to visit the school after I left my home town in the late teens. One of things that surprised me is how clearly I can remember what I did at this elementary school.

Let me show one example.

You can see the ground in front of the school building (and my two children) in the photo, where 10-year-old my friends and I found a small whirlwind standing still. I was not brave at that time (maybe not yet now), but something encouraged me to jump into the whirlwind. I was still wondering what on earth the something was.

I felt kind of pains probably because some small stones hit me in the face. However, before long, the whirlwind disappeared spontaneously. Given no other guys attempting to enter the wind, I was proud of my behavior. On top of that, it looked like I attacked the wind with guts and defeated it without a trace.

I did not tell my story to my kids, hoping that, someday in the future, my kids read this blog and remember what they did with me on Children's day, with their future children.