Overview of the Virtual Lab

This lab was a fun way to sum up all that I have done in the cardiovascular system! Throughout this lab there is a virtual patient and you are the doctor. You have to make them take tests such as using a stethoscope to listen to their heart beat and make predictions on the problem, take echocardiography images, and pedigree charts. Finally after this process is finished you have to come to a conclusion and try to determine what the heart condition may be. If you are right you win; if not you go on to another patient and try again. In my actual case I had a patient that had an irregular heart beat when I listened with the stethoscope. This patients heart you could hear two odd sounds. From this I determined he may have mod bradycardia and a mild mitral valve gegutation meaning blood was flowing back through the valves when it shouldn't be. He was complaining of dyspnea and fatigue when strenuous activity and from what I could tell he had a diastolic murmur meaning his second beat stretched out meaning blood was following back through the valve(s). Then I started on an echocardiograph test. From this the problem looks like the mitral valve is thickened and didn't seem to be moving properly. The valve leftlets moving poorly was leading to an obstruction between the left atrium and the left ventricle which was interfering with the blood flow. This condition is called Mitral Stenosis. My final test to the patient was using pedigree charts. This chart shows the patients family history and charts showing who in the family may contain this disease. These charts tell if a problem is recesive or not. Knowing that 2 of 6 children of 2 perfectly healthy parents are born with serious genetic diseases we determined  from the patients charts that neither of his parents had this disease but a few of his cousins did. Iconcluded that the condition didnt seem hertiatory because he has relatives with the disease, but no parents or offspring with it. My final doctor's conclusion was that the patient was suffering from Mitral Stenosis with is a diastolic murmur. I let the patient know that it can be corrected with valve replacement surgery and it isn't fatal but symptoms will remain unless taken care of. I was correct with diagnosing my patient and so I won the game! Overall, this lab was a great way to wrap up the cardio system! And the game was actually very interesting, fun, and benifical to see how all the small parts of the cardio system work together.