Medical collections brought under one roof

Professor Peter Browett in the Medical Sciences Learning Centre. Picture / Brett Phibbs

"Male 60. An eccentric man who lived as a recluse," the reference folder says. "Found dead in his garden by a neighbour. Tuberculosis pericarditis."

The unnamed man with a bad heart is one of the many people whose organs - normal, malformed or diseased - are stored at the Auckland Medical School.

Preserved in formalin in plastic containers, they are now on display in the Medical Sciences Learning Centre, a new teaching and research facility opened by Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday.

Researchers like tissue specimens to have details on the person they came from or clues to how they died, but not all the items do.

"It adds some context to the specimens and the learning of the students," says Professor Peter Browett, an initiator of the $800,000 centre.

The facility brings together the pathology "museum's" collection of bottled specimens and the anatomy museum's models of skeletons and body parts and its real organs that have been preserved by "plastination". In this process, liquids in the organ are replaced by plastics, allowing it to be handled.

The collection has about 1400 items, the majority pathology specimens. It has all types of organs, from the brain to the kidney and sections of bowel with tumours.

Professor Browett said the specimens dated from the 1950s. All those from after 1980 had the consent of the donor or the family. Before then, consent was not required, but the Health Ministry had approved the collection.

The centre also has x-ray pictures on computers.

An anatomy dissection area and a clinical skills area where students can practice their technique are next door.

A grant of $500,000 from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation allowed the centre to go ahead. It was the foundation's largest grant, to mark its 50 years of support for medical research.

Professor Browett said having the centre would greatly improve access to the specimens for medical, nursing and health science students and researchers. It will also be used by other tertiary education, high school, St John and Army groups.

As for the 60-year-old, his condition is an inflammation and thickening of the membrane enclosing the heart because of the TB bug. It can constrict the heart.