By using an orderly approach, the physician is able to correlate bedside observations and laboratory findings with pathophysiology and the basic elements of cardiac pathology, as shown in the following specimen.
This is a pathology specimen from a patient with severe mitral stenosis who died of a cerebral embolistm. it shows the mitral valve from the ventricular side. note the thickened anterior mitral valve leaflet and the thickened and contracted chordae that fuse with the papillary muscles.