Hepatic artery embolization hepatic artery. The percutaneous Seldinger technique introduces a catheter, which is a thin flexible tube made of medical grade material, into the hepatic artery under radiological control. This approach was developed for metastatic neuroendocrine tumors in the early 1970s. Tumor cells get over 90% of their nutrients from the hepatic artery, while the normal cells of the liver get about 70-80 percent of their nutrients and 50% their oxygen supply from the portal vein, and thus can survive with the hepatic artery effectively blocked. Once the catheter is carefully placed in the artery or in a selected branch, the blood
Spermaceti organ Spermaceti organ The spermaceti organ is an organ that commonly appears in the heads of toothed whales of the family Physeteroidea, in particular the sperm whale. This organ contains a waxy liquid called spermaceti and is involved in the generation of sound. In the modern day Great Sperm Whale ("Physeter macrocephalus"), the spermaceti organ is far larger in proportion to the animal’s body than what would be explained by simple allometry, and the evolution of the organ has caused changes in basal skull morphology, which may implicate tradeoffs were made that compromised the functionality of other nearby features. The high