Artery - History

History

Among the ancient Greeks, the arteries were considered to be "air holders" that were responsible for the transport of air to the tissues and were connected to the trachea. This was as a result of the arteries of the dead being found to be empty.

In medieval times, it was recognized that arteries carried a fluid, called "spiritual blood" or "vital spirits", considered to be different from the contents of the veins. This theory went back to Galen. In the late medieval period, the trachea, and ligaments were also called "arteries".

William Harvey described and popularized the modern concept of the circulatory system and the roles of arteries and veins in the 17th century.

Alexis Carrel at the beginning of 20th century first described the technique for vascular suturing and anastomosis and successfully performed many organ transplantations in animals; he thus actually opened the way to modern vascular surgery that was before limited to vessels permanent ligatation.

Theodor Kocher reported that atherosclerosis frequently developed in patients undergoing to thyroidectomy and suggested that hypothyroidism favors atherosclerosis, which was, in the 900's at the autopsies, more frequent in iodine-deficient Austrians compared to Icelanders, which are not deficient in iodine. Turner reported the effectiveness of iodide and dried extracts of thyroid in prevention of atherosclerosis in laboratory rabbits.