Talk:Heartworm
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The "History" section needs to be rewritten to reflect a more international focus. As it currently reads, it gives only the North American viewpoint (I'm a U.S. citizen btw), whereas the disease is virtually world wide in its distribution. I will try to get around to doing the revision unless someone else does it sooner.
[edit] Pulmonary vein and right side of the heart?
I left a note in the article where it says "the now adult worms migrate to the heart through the pulmulnary vein to the right side of the heart..." because the pulmonary vein (at least in humans) leads to the left atrium of the heart. So is this an error? Which side do they really travel to, and which blood vessel do they really use? Many thanks, delldot | talk 02:11, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
I went ahead and corrected that. You were right. -- Joelmills 02:02, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
"Once the infestation reaches a certain concentration in the lungs, the now adult worms migrate from the pulmonary artery to the right side of the heart and begin to reproduce in ernest, filling the blood with microfilariae. " This sounds a bit strange to me. Do they migrate from the pulmonary artery to the right side of the heart against the flow of blood? I never heard of anything going 'upstream' in the blood. Or do you mean they go pulmonary artery ->lung->pulm. vein -> left side of heart -> body -> right side of the heart? Assuming the vascular system in dogs is similar to the human one. S Sepp 11:26, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
Initially the larvae reach the circulatory system and migrate to the small pulmonary arteries. There they grow into adults and then migrate back (upstream) to the right ventricle. They never enter the pulmonary vein or left side of the heart. The offspring, microfilaria, do go through the whole circulatory system. --Joelmills 17:46, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Photo?
There was an Animal Planet video featuring a preserved canine heart with worms. A similar photo will be nice to have in Wikipedia.
- I'll get a photo from work, but the heart will have to stay in the jar. Formaldehyde cleanup is a pain in the butt. --Joelmills 19:39, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
