Images of Memorable Cases: Epilogue 1.3 2007/06/01 13:54:18 GMT-5 2007/10/13 11:18:48.326 GMT-5 Herbert L. Fred dfred@houston.rr.com Hendrik A van Dijk hvandijk@comcast.net Charles F. Bearden cbearden@rice.edu Frederick D Moody fred.moody@rice.edu Raymond Wagner rwagner@rice.edu artifact diagnosis heart medicine radiograph Valentine Cautionary tale to physicians using modern medical technology In attempting to provide a memorable conclusion, we came across the following thought-provoking quotation: If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. --Abraham Maslow In that light, we hope that this book has helped you find diagnostic tools that you didn’t know you had. If it didn’t . . . we are heart-broken—like the “broken heart” in the image above. That heart, by the way, belonged to a 69-year-old woman who had undergone a coronary artery bypass procedure on Valentine’s Day. Postoperatively, the portable chest radiograph shown above disclosed a striking radiolucent line bisecting the patient’s heart. But on a follow-up radiograph made several hours later, the line had disappeared, proving that it was an artifact and not the result of the surgeon’s knife (or Cupid’s arrow). The cause of the artifact remains a mystery. That said, we hope you have enjoyed this journey as much as we have enjoyed charting it.