My Medical Skills Give Me Experience Points Chapter 1382 549: The Body’s Second Heart—Secretly Registering for a Medical Visit

The deeper Zhou Can delved into the patient's test results, the more his brow furrowed.

An examination of the X-ray revealed no significant cardiomegaly or pulmonary edema in the patient's chest. While the color Doppler echocardiography indicated normal valvular function and cardiac size, the left ventricular ejection fraction was disappointingly below the expected range.

After meticulously reviewing each of the patient's examinations, Zhou Can discerned that the underlying cause of illness for this seventeen-year-old was far more intricate than initially anticipated.

Typically, heart failure presents with at least some discernible abnormality within the heart structure.

However, in this case, the heart's dimensions, the myocardium, and crucial valves like the tricuspid and mitral were all within normal parameters. Apart from the sub-standard ejection fraction, the patient's heart appeared otherwise healthy.

Consequently, due to the diminished pumping efficiency, the patient's heart rate had escalated significantly beyond the norm.

This elevated heart rate wasn't classified as an abnormality but rather as the heart's adaptive response to the condition.

What exactly was precipitating the decline in the ventricular ejection fraction?

Without evident pathology, one cannot simply expose a living person's chest for direct inspection; diagnosis relies on interpreting various test outcomes and synthesizing them with a physician's diagnostic acumen and medical knowledge.

At Zhou Can's advanced medical standing, his assessment of the findings would closely mirror what direct surgical observation would reveal.

The only caveat would be the presence of an exceedingly subtle lesion, one that current diagnostic instruments struggle to detect.

For instance, a tumor smaller than 1 cm in diameter often evades detection by standard imaging and ultrasound. While MRI represents a significant leap in medical diagnostics, even it can miss tumors under 1 cm.

However, if a tumor is minute or strategically concealed, MRI remains insufficient.

In essence, given his expertise, Zhou Can could accurately deduce the condition by cross-referencing imaging results with biochemical and ancillary tests, achieving a diagnostic precision equivalent to direct surgical inspection.

The development and utilization of diagnostic equipment are fundamentally aimed at identifying the root cause of a disease without inflicting harm upon the patient.

Otherwise, pinpointing a minute abnormality might necessitate multiple invasive explorations, potentially five or six, even seven or eight times.

Imagine the scenario: an exploratory abdominal surgery reveals nothing, prompting a chest incision, and then another, and so forth – a truly nightmarish prospect.

Following a thorough review of all the patient's diagnostic data, Zhou Can concluded that there was no overt cardiac lesion.

Nevertheless, a crucial point of concern remained: the persistent elevation of the patient's heart rate carried the potential for severe long-term repercussions, including cardiac enlargement, myocardial ischemia, and necrosis. The potential risk was indeed substantial.

This young man had been experiencing heart failure for an extended period. However, through pharmacological management, his youth, robust vitality, and high tolerance levels had, until now, masked any overtly apparent cardiac deterioration.

Early signs of cardiac enlargement were present, yet the extent of this enlargement remained within manageable limits.

Signs of myocardial ischemia and necrosis had not yet manifested.

Zhou Can remained deep in thought, his frown intensifying as he sought the origin of the patient's ailment.

He finally grasped why so many prominent Cardiac Surgery specialists in the capital found themselves utterly baffled.

The root cause of this young man's illness was undeniably exceptionally challenging to pinpoint.

Given the compromised cardiac ejection capacity, a heart transplant, while not the ideal primary solution, was a viable option to consider.

It was akin to troubleshooting an electronic device: if an engineer spends considerable time unable to identify a specific faulty component, yet the device remains inoperable, the issue might reside within the main circuit board. Experience and logical deduction would point towards a systemic problem with the board itself.

What if the precise fault truly eludes identification?

The most straightforward and efficient resolution would be to replace the entire main board.

The capital's leading experts had exhausted all other avenues, which led them to propose a heart transplant for the young patient.

"Your condition is exceptionally complex. Please remain hospitalized for two days of observation. I will collaborate with other specialists within the hospital to dedicate our full efforts toward uncovering the cause. However, I cannot offer any guarantees of success. Should you experience any previously unnoticed symptoms, new developments, or recall any critical details regarding the onset of your illness during your hospital stay, please inform the attending physician or nursing staff immediately."

Unable to pinpoint the source of the patient's ailment for the moment, this was the sole course of action Zhou Can could devise. It's quite common in clinical practice to encounter maladies where the etiology remains elusive. On occasion, even after a doctor has successfully treated an illness, the underlying cause might never be fully understood."Alright, thank you! Please give it your best shot for me!" the patient expressed his gratitude towards Zhou Can. A few meters away from Director Xue Yan, after Zhou Can had walked off, he overheard a family member speaking with palpable disdain, "I had a feeling none of these so-called internet-famous doctors were truly dependable; it's all just a facade. They're so young—how profound could their skills possibly be?" "From what I observed, this Dr. Zhou seemed quite genuine. At the very least, he made a sincere effort to diagnose me earlier. Since we've journeyed this far, we might as well settle in and observe for a couple of days to see the outcome." The patient's words to his relative offered Zhou Can a measure of solace. ... The day vanished in a flash. Whenever a spare moment presented itself, Zhou Can dedicated his efforts to uncovering the reason behind the 17-year-old boy's affliction. No new developments emerged from the Cardiothoracic Surgery department, indicating the patient remained in the same condition as before, offering no fresh insights. Even during his meal after concluding work, Zhou Can's brow remained knitted in concentration. The family had traveled all the way from the imperial capital seeking his expertise; he felt a strong obligation to honor their trust. What precisely was precipitating the heart failure in the young man surnamed Lan? Esteemed specialists in the imperial capital had even conducted examinations of the patient's cardiac electrical signals, yielding results that were within the normal range. To be frank, if the root cause of heart failure cannot be identified, even a heart transplant might not provide a definitive solution.