20th-century diagnosis helps reveal the basis of heart disease

Today, doctors have at their fingertips a wide array of sophisticated techniques for diagnosing heart disease. Each step along the way in the development of these techniques contributed greatly to our understanding of the cardiovascular system.

15th-century diagnostic tools

This image shows most of the diagnostic tools available to a 15th-century doctor. He takes the patient's pulse and looks at a flask of urine. A fast pulse suggested cardiovascular disease, and cloudy urine indicated kidney disease. The information revealed was limited and treatments were few. Patients often had to die before physicians could find out more by doing an autopsy.

Years of scientific advances and technological developments have led to significant improvements in diagnosis. Today, physicians can see functioning, internal organs of living patients without cutting open the body or spilling a single drop of blood.