en aval

[kitty like a cat]

Working on a translation and they are describing different parts of the circulation system.
"le volume d'echantillonage se situe en aval des cavites cardiaques.."
Other sentences refere to "en aval de la valve pulmonaire".
I was thinking: the survey volume is located ....the cardiac cavities" but really can't figgure out the "en aval"
I don't really think that we refer to "downstream" and "below" would not fit this context.
Anyone come accross this problem
kitty

 

[Keith Bradford]

I'm not a medical expert, but I think I've seen proximal(ly) and distal(ly) used to mean nearer to/further from the centre of the body, respectively. You might want to look them up.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Hello,
"Downstream" is the term - it is in terms of blood flow through the heart. "Proximal" and "distal" have the meaning of nearer/further as given by Keith Bradford but just relative to the organ/tissue/cell spoken about. For that very reason, they don't fit this case: one thing can be "proximal" and another "distal" but both be "downstream", it is just that one is further downstream than the other.
(Note, "below" doesn't fit as that can be "upstream" of the heart - for blood arriving from the lower body).

 

[OLN]

I think you're both right (I mean proximally is correct, not distally).
"en aval des cavités cardiaques" means immediately downstream of the pulmonary or aortic valves, as opposed to "inside the cardiac cavities"

I'm not sure about "survey volume"; sample volume?