page_title: Francisco Torrent-Guasp
section_title: The ventricular myocardial band
hierarchical_section_title: Francisco Torrent-Guasp / The ventricular myocardial band
caption_attribution_description: HVMB model made by Francisco Torrent-Guasp
context_page_description: Francisco Torrent-Guasp. was a spanish cardiologist whose research focused on the anatomy and physiology of the human heart. His work led to the discovery and description of the ventricular myocardial band. His work can be found in reference books on anatomy and cardiac surgery.
context_section_description: Several anatomists had previously focused on the structure of the heart: Andreas Vesalius, Enrico Rueda, Jean-Baptiste de Sénac, Thomas Bartholin, Jules Germain Cloquet and Robert Koch. It was well known that the mammalian and avian heart has four chambers (two atria and two ventricles) and that its muscle fibers are intertwined on several levels. 
  Many have attempted to explain the mechanism of blood circulation, such as Galen, Ibn-Al Nafis, and William Harvey. Little attention was paid to the general anatomical architecture of the myocardium, the intricate layering of the muscle fibers within the myocardium and its effect on the blood circulation. The combined writings of Drs. Al-Nafis and Harvey, (400 years apart) yield the basis of the systemic and pulmonary circulation. 
  Torrent-Guasp performed hundreds of anatomical dissections of animals hearts in his Dénia laboratory. He also compared the structure of the heart in other vertebrates and annelids. From these dissections he discerned that the ventricles of the heart represent a continuous muscular band folded on itself as a helix during the embryonic development. By folding, the myocardial band crates a septum that separates two ventricular chambers of the heart close to the time of birth.
  Torrent-Guasp focused further on the relationship between anatomy and physiology, i.e. between the form, structure and function of the human myocardium. It is commonly believed that the motion of the heart (systole-diastole) is active-passive: the former is produced by the active contraction of the cardiac musculature contraction while the second by its relaxation. The ventricular myocardial band model supports the existence of an active muscular contraction that creates suction (creation of suction in diastole is extremely problematic with current theory) during ventricular diastole. Thus, it is the contraction of the ascending segment of the myocardial band that paradoxically increases the ventricular volume.
caption: Rubber model of the folded ventricular myocardial band. The atria are absent from the model. On the left, the ventricular chambers separated by the septum.