In a rare case, a doctor at India’s Goa Medical College (GMC) and Hospital has found a "heart of stone" during an autopsy of a 50-year-old man.
The rare condition happened due to the calcification of the heart's tissues, that virtually turned the vital organ into a stone, The Times of India reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, Dr Bharat Sreekumar, a junior resident-cum-second year PG student doctor at the hospital’s forensic medicine department, conducted an autopsy on the body of an unidentified man who was found dead in a South Goa park.
During the dissection of the heart, the doctor found that it was stony as the left ventricle showed massive endocardial calcification that caused restrictive cardiomyopathy — a condition wherein the complete filling of ventricles with blood is compromised, the report added.
“The heart was so hard as if it were set in a stone. I showed this rare finding to my seniors in the department who suggested that I do a histopathological study on this portion of heart with the help of the GMC’s pathology department,” Sreekumar was quoted by the report as saying.
Histopathology is the microscopic examination of tissue to study the manifestations of a disease. The examination revealed that the man’s heart had "turned into a stone" due to calcification. It is the similar condition that causes kidney stones.
The doctor said that he dealt with massive calcification with minimal fibrosis, which is a rare condition.
The conclusions of the study were contrary to the assumption that the hardening of the tissues had occurred due to fibrosis, the report said.
