Pediatric Cardiology Pathology Specimens

We just had a lab on pathology of congenital heart defects. It was really cool! They had these amazing specimens of unusual diseases. On the one hand, it was really sad to see pediatric pathology specimens (as it indicates the child died and had an autopsy), but on the other hand, I learned so much from seeing actual hearts. The pediatric cardiologists and surgeons helped guide us in examining the specimens (we can't use wall thickness to locate left ventricle anymore since so many defects have right ventricular hypertrophy). I really enjoyed trying to guess the pathology: Ebstein anomaly, tetralogy of Fallot, ASD, VSD, truncus arteriosus, transposition of the great vessels, coarctation of the aorta, pulmonary valve atresia. The pulmonary atresia specimen even had a surgical Dacron shunt from the pulmonary artery to the aorta; that was crazy. I was impressed; these are lesions that I probably will never see again (unless I decide to go into peds cards, which has moved up on my list of interest). The hearts were so incredibly small (the size of an almond), but it was a great exercise following the flow of blood through all the different chambers.