The cardiac base is one of the surfaces of the heart, opposite to the cardiac apex. The name of this surface is based on the description or a pyramid, where the base is opposite the apex.

In the human heart in the anatomical position the cardiac base looks towards the right shoulder. The cardiac base presents with the right and left atrium and is in contact with the esophagus.

The image shows a human heart in the anatomical position. The cardiac apex looks anteriorly and to the left. The open right hand shows the location of the cardiac base.

Click on the image for a larger picture. The description of the cardiac base is continued here.

The word [infarction] arises from the Latin [infarcire] meaning "to fill" or "to stuff". The word reflects the fact that the "stuffing" of an artery with a clot can lead to cell death or necrosis. especially if the area supplied by the clogged vessel does not have collateral circulation.

It is a common misconception that the term "infarction" means by default a "myocardial infarction". This is not true, as an infarction can occur anywhere in the body, most commonly in areas without collateral circulation, as the heart and brain (distal to the arterial circle of Willis).

The term infarction is a synonym for [stroke] as both refer to the denial of blood supply to an area of the body.

After 10 years of a normal medical practice (for the times) Mesmer grew ever so impatient with the “classic” potions, salves, and bloodletting. He treated a woman of what today would be called “hysteria” or “somatization disorder” with every known medical treatment unsuccessfully; she improved after a treatment with magnets! leading Mesmer to believe that “animal magnetism” was the way to continue his career.

Mesmer developed a pseudotechnique to “magnetize” almost every element except steel, and his patient base grew. These patients all had some type of mental disorder that was susceptible to treatment by suggestion. Mesmer had discovered what today we know as the “placebo effect” and the basics of therapeutic hypnosis. Mesmer had so many patients that he had to treat them in “batches”, several at a time. Patients who were treated by Mesmer were said to have been “Mesmerized”.

Sources:

1. "Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fallof Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures,Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method"Lanska DJ, Lanska JT Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience, 2007
2. "Early American mesmeric societies: a historical study" Gravitz, MA Am J Clin Hypn (1994) 37, 41–48
3. "Franz Anton Mesmer: The first psychotherapist of the modern age?" Traetta, L (2008) Int J Psychol 43 (3-4) 121

The root term [-styl-] is Greek and means "a pillar". The Latin term [stilos] means "a pointy structure". The suffix [oid] means "similar to". The word then means "similar to a pillar".

In anatomy, the styloid process is a pointy, slender pillar of bone that is found in the inferior aspect of the temporal bone. See accompanying image. Vesalius thought that a slender bony process of the ulna looked similar, so he called it also the "styloid process"

The root term [-styl-] can be found in muscles that are related to the styloid process of the temporal bone, such as: styloglossus, stylohyoid, and stylopharyngeus.

The word [necrosis] arises from the Greek [nekros] meaning "a dead body" or "death". The suffix [-osis] means "condition", but with the connotation of "many". Literally, the term necrosis means "many deaths", but it used to refer to "cell death".

When necrosis is due to an arterial obstruction, the term becomes synonymous with "infarction".

The trapezium bone is one of the four bones that comprise the distal row of the carpus or carpal bones that form the wrist. It is distinguished by a large groove on its anterior (volar) surface. It is found on the lateral (radial) aspect of the wrist between the scaphoid bone proximally and the first metacarpal distally (see image). It is also known as the "multangular bone" or the "os multangulum majus"

The trapezium bone articulates with four bones, including the scaphoid, trapezoid, and the first and second metacarpals.

The accompanying image shows the anterior (volar) surface of the wrist. Click on the image for a larger picture.