Coronary bypass surgery is undoubtedly a very significant achievement of modern medical science. But one ponders over certain pertinent questions such as the cost involved and the ultimate benefit.
The human heart is nothing but a four-chambered muscular pump that supplies blood to all parts of the body. Being an active pump, the heart itself requires a lot of energy and receives its own blood supply via certain vessels called coronary arteries. By a process called “atherosclerosis”, fat particles are deposited on the inner wall of the lumen of the coronary arteries which eventually reduce the size of the lumen and produce obstruction to the free flow of blood. The portion of the heart which suffers from lack of blood supply becomes weaker as a pump and gives rise to a typical chest pain called “angina”. When such blockage is total, the corresponding heart muscle dies and then one suffers a “heart attack”. In all these circumstances, heart surgeons perform a special type of operation known as “coronary bypass surgery”.
In this surgery, a blood vessel is taken (usually from the leg of the patient) and then grafted on the heart in such a way that when blood flows through, it bypasses the narrow segment of the diseased coronary artery. The concept is to divert the flow from the narrow artery, inside which there is already a ‘traffic congestion’ and in this respect, it is synonymous with road bypass.
B2 Fill in the gaps with the information given in the passage :
(i) The number of chambers of the human heart is _______.
(ii) Name the process by which fat particles are deposited within coronary arteries
_______.
(iii) When a heart muscle dies, due to total blockage one suffers from a _______.
(iv) To prevent heart attack Surgeons perform _______.
B3 Find meanings
Which words in the passage have the following meanings?
(i) think over
(ii) relevant
(iii) turn in another direction
(iv) a tube carrying fluid.
B4
(i) Coronary bypass surgery is undoubtedly a very significant achievement of modern science. (Use ‘which’ and rewrite the sentence.)
(ii) The heart surgeons perform a special type of operation.
(Begin your sentence with ‘A special type of operation _______’)
B5 Personal Response
What do you do to keep your heart healthy?
