RT Journal
A1 Mark LC
T1 JApanese language barrier to communication
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1969
FD February 3
VO 207
IS 5
SP 954
OP 954
DO 10.1001/jama.1969.03150180084033
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1969.03150180084033
AB To the Editor: — 
    An item titled "Promising Results Obtained With New Cardiac Valve," in the MEDICAL NEWS section (205: Sept 16, 1968, adv p 34) describes an artificial heart valve developed by Drs. W. S. Pierce, D. M. Behrendt, and Andrew G. Morrow at the National Heart Institute, Bethesda, Md. The valve is described and pictured as a stainless steel disk pivoting to an opening of up to 75 degrees on an eccentric hinge set in an annular valve body, the whole resembling a "butterfly valve" in an automobile carburetor.This design, while ingenious, is not unique: Priority of invention must be assigned to Juro Wada, MD, professor of surgery and chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Sapporo Medical College and Hospital ("Idai") in Japan. I was privileged to see the Wada "hingeless hinge" valve at first hand last year at Idai in the Department