Know Your Heart and its Disease

There are a variety of ailments connected to the heart and providing data on all the types of cardio vascular disease could be quite a task. Yet a look at conditions that sway the heart and blood vessels can give you a broad view of cardiovascular disease.

You hear many terms like coronary heart disease , atherosclerosis or some other term and are left wondering as to what exactly all these terms mean. Healing data could confuse you. Triglyceride is simpler when mentioned as fat in your body. It is valuable that you read and stay informed on some basic terminology. You could watch a few programs connected to the heart and its working before going to your doctor. The word give the meaning as well; 'Cardio' is connected to the heart and 'vascular' is connected to the blood vessels.

Diseases of the heart are many. Some definite types are

Coronary artery disease

Arteries contribute the heart muscle with blood. Obstructions in the artery is a condition called atherosclerosis, is a prominent cause of coronary heart disease. Coronary artery disease causes angia (chest pain) and myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease is a more wide term. It collectively refers to coronary artery disease and its disease that are a consequent of the coronary artery disease like angia and myocardial infarction. Women and heart strike is other prominent aspect with the onset of menopause.

Cardiomyopathy

This refers to all diseases of the heart muscle. It deals with loss of heart muscle (ischemic), enlargement of heart muscle (dilated) and thickening of the heart muscle (hypertrophic). other type of cardiomyopathy is an enlarged heart without a known cause (idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy).

Valvular heart disease

The heart consists of valves that direct the flow of blood into and out of the heart. Diseases of the heart valves are due to conditions like narrowing of heart valves (stenosis), leaking of a heart valve (regurgitation) and if the conclusion of the valve is not allowable (prolapse).

Heart valves can also be damaged by other conditions. Rheumatic fever, connective tissue disorders, medications or treatments for cancer and even infections (infectious endocarditis).

Pericardial disease

Pericardium is a sac that encases the heart. This can get inflamed (pericarditis), stiff (constrictive pericarditis) or accumulated with fluid ( pericardial effusion). These may occur together after a heart strike or may vary due to conditions.

Congenital heart disease

Congenital heart disease develops in the womb of the mother, before the birth of the baby. Narrowing of the aorta (coarctation), holes in the heart atrial or ventricular septal fault are some congenital diseases. Detection may be at the time of birth or later in life.

Heart failure

Heart failure may occur as a consequent of other cardiovascular conditions. It is a condition where the heart cannot pump adequate blood to the organs and tissues in the body. Due to this other vital organs do not get adequate blood; causing shortness of breath, fluid holding and fatigue. Congestive heart failure is used if the heart failure as led to a 'fluid build up' in the body.

Blood Vessels

These are essentially hollow tubes that carry blood to the organs and tissues. The types of blood vessels are Arteries, Veins, Capillaries and Lymphatic cells. Disorders connected to blood vessels that sway the heart are Atherosclerosis, Arteriosclerosis, Hypertension, Stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic), Aneurysm, Claudication with peripheral arterial disease, Vasculitis, Venous incompetence, Venous thrombosis, varicose veins and Lymph edema.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is based on a series of tests. Uncomplicated procedures are listening (stethoscope) to your heart, measuring the heart rate and the blood pressure.

o The systolic and diastolic blood pressures are measured and are colse to 120 and 80 respectively for a normal heart.

o Blood test to check for high cholesterol levels

o Other tests are Cpr testing which gives the state of inflammation of arteries.

o Ecg and Ekg tests are where the electrical operation of the heart is tested to correlate blood flow and heart rhythm. It is also done under stress at times to find out connected Cardiac Arrhythmia ailments.

o X-Rays are used to look at the structures of the chest (lungs and heart) to evaluate allowable functioning.

o Head- up tilt test is used to evaluate the causes of fainting spells.

o Ultrasound/Echocardiograms give pictures of the heart chambers and its valves.

A few other test methods are Cardiac Catheterization/coronary angiogram, Electrophysiology, Electron Beam (ultrafast) Ct or Ebct, Cardiac biopsy (Myocardial biopsy), Mri scan and Pericardiocentesis. It is also prominent to take a look at high triglycerides as well as this often accompanies high cholesterol.

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Heart Disease: How Has It Affected Your Family?

I have known for years that I should be conscious of my heart health, my maternal Grandpa had heart disease which he finally passed away from. When I was pregnant with my son my doctor heard a murmur over my heart and referred me for an echocardiogram, (ultrasound of the heart). It was found that one of my Aortic valve cusps (last valve leaving the heart) wasn't working properly. What did this mean for me and my unborn child? Well since this is not hereditary my baby was safe, whew! For me? I will need to get a valve replacement in 30ish years. There are a merge other areas of my heart that are not functioning quite the way they should as well. Once I calmed down and was able to think about things a bit clearer, I realized that this had not affected me the first 30 years of my life so I would continue what I was doing for the next 30 as well.

At 7 months pregnant my Dad had a heart charge and also had an echo done. I was amazed to see (I am an ultrasound technologist) that our hearts functions were quite similar. This was an eye opener to me. Now I have heart disease on both sides of my house and my own heart isn't pumping quite up to snuff, hmm time to take things a miniature more seriously.

Heart disease in women in the Untied States and Canada is the whole one killer. This fact is becoming more and more known and women are becoming more aware of the symptoms of heart disease which differ from that of mens. They seem to be much more vague than that of mens symptoms and are therefore over looked. Here are a few symptoms to keep a look out for:

- chest pain, this can comprise burning, tightness, discomfort, pressure, fullness. Anyone that is not normal for you to feel. This pain may spread, up the neck, down one or both arms or in the chest area.

-You may get weak all over, pale, sweaty, nausea, indigestion, short of breath

-Become fearful or deny what is even going on.

The first line of defense: awareness. Next: eat well and exercise, we all know this, beat it before it even starts to be a problem. As an ultrasound technologist who does echoes, I see all ages, shapes, backgrounds and fitness levels of patients who come in for this exam. From an elderly women in Icu to a young man who plays hockey twice a week. So why is heart disease such a coarse occurrence now? well, our diets are not what they used to be, most of us do not so physical work/ practice and how many of us had mothers who smoked while pregnant with us? Genetics also plays a factor. Lets get back to the smoking mothers. I have heard of studies on newborn babies of mothers who smoke, these babies already have thickened arterial walls! So they are already on their way to having heart issues, they are already that much closer to a heart charge than a baby whose mum naturally doesn't smoke! I think this is huge! Depending on the lifestyle this child will have will depend on when this will come to be a problem.

This is a just a brief talk about heart disease and what to look for. If you have any questions, your house doctor is the best man to ask.

Please remember, as parents and before we even come to be parents our actions affect our children. Those warnings are out there for a reason.

Reference: communal health division of Canada

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Heart Disease

Heart Disease is a hot condition topic today. With all of the data about heart disease on both Tv and the Internet, do

you surely know which data is guidance that you can trust on heart disease? How about data that is not accurate

on heart disease?

There are many different kinds of "heart disease" and we will briefly touch on those in this article, as well.

Are you ready to learn more about what heart disease is and the different types of heart disease? Good, then keep reading!

What Is Heart Disease?

What exactly is heart disease? The most recent definition of heart disease is any disease that affects how the heart normally

works. Narrowing or hardening of the arteries that lead to the heart is the most coarse type of cardiac disease, today.

Of procedure this can encompass quite a few types or variations of heart disease.

Various types of heart disease include:

* Alcoholic cardiomyopathy

* Aortic regurgitation

* Aortic stenosis

* Arrhythmias

* Cardiogenic shock

* Congenital heart disease

* Coronary artery disease (Cad)

* Dilated cardiomyopathy

* Endocarditis

* Heart charge (myocardial infarction)

* Heart failure

* Heart tumor

* Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

* Idiopathic cardiomyopathy

* Ischemic cardiomyopathy

* Acute mitral regurgitation

* persisting mitral regurgitation

* Mitral stenosis

* Mitral valve prolapse

* Peripartum cardiomyopathy

* Pulmonary stenosis

* garage angina

* Unstable angina

* Tricuspid regurgitation

As you can see, there are many categories of what surely constitutes heart disease. Now that we have identified different

types of cardiac disease, let's study some of the basic causes of these diseases.

Causes Of Heart Disease

Just as many different names for cardiac disease can be confusing and complicated, so can the causes of heart disease. And we

will cover the most coarse causes below.

Briefly, here are some causes:

* Hypertension ("high blood pressure")

* Heart valves that do not function normally

* Electrical conduction of the heart that causes an abnormal rhythm.

* Heart's pumping function that is affected by toxins or infections.

* Congenital or "birth defects" of the heart.

How Many population Are Affected By Heart Disease?

According to the National invent of Health, there are roughly 70.1 million population affected by some type of cardiac

disorder! Heart disease continues to be the whole one cause of death in the Us.

Among minorities, cardiac disease or heart disease, ranks first as foremost cause of death. The rates of deaths declined for

those groups with the exception of one group, American Indian females. The time frame for this study was in the middle of 1985 and

2002.

Between 1992 and 2002, the ration of decline of death rates for Chd (Cardiac Heart Diseas) was the highest among white

males and the least decline was in the black female population.

Financial Impact Of Cardiac Heart Disease

Besides the horrific costs of Chd in terms of personal tragedy, society also bears the brunt of the effects of this disease.

According to the study, 2005 costs for Cvd(Cardiovascular Disease) were staggering. Overall, costing 393 Billion Dollars!

Costs broke down like this:

* 242 Billion Dollars for direct condition care costs.

* 35 Billion Dollars for indirect costs of morbidity.

* 117 Billion Dollars in Direct costs of mortality.

As you can see, cardiovascular disease is one that while involved and intricate in name and causes, is plainly devastating

to both the personel and to the society that the affected comes from. It should be taken very seriously and not ignored, so

education and stoppage are significant in decreasing the effects of these diseases, ordinarily know as cardiac disease.

This record was written and screened by a license curative professional. This record is for informational purposes only.

This material is in no way a substitute for the curative guidance of your own physician. The National Institutes of Health

served as the basis for this curative article. © 2006 http://www.medicalcontentsolutions.com . All proprietary reserved. Want to reprint this article, feel free as long as you contain the following:

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Heart Disease Hits the noted

Fame often divides among people. Supreme citizen enjoy many privileges that others do not, but the privilege of avoiding heart disease is not one of them.

A Supreme person with heart disease faces the same risk factors as those who are not famous. A Supreme person with heart disease experiences the same symptoms, and can die of heart disease. The Supreme do not escape heart disease, known by physicians as coronary artery disease (Cad).

Examples of Supreme citizen with Heart Disease

A Supreme person with heart disease who recently (March 2007) underwent triple heart bypass surgery is Regis Philbin well-known United States Tv host. He had experienced typical heart disease symptoms such as chest pains and shortness of breath, despite having angioplasty 14 years ago. He joined a long list of Supreme citizen with heart disease. Here are a mere dozen of them.

* Bill Clinton - quadruple bypass surgery in 2004

* David Letterman - quadruple bypass surgery in 2000

* Larry King - heart charge and bypass surgery in 1987

* Mike Ditka - heart charge in 1988

* Tommy Lasorda - heart charge in 1996

* Dick Cheney - at least 4 heart attacks

* Phyllis Diller - heart charge in 1999

* Elizabeth Taylor - congestive heart failure

* Victoria Gotti - heart disease from age 16

* Ma Ji - died of heart disease in 2006

* Alfredo Di Stefano - heart charge in 2005

* Sir Ranulph Fiennes - heart charge and bypass surgery

Heart Disease Treatment

A Supreme person with heart disease may be able to afford the best medicine available. Every exertion will likely be made not only to save their lives but to return them to the fullest possible health.

Advantages of Heart Disease in the Famous

A Supreme person with heart disease can be a highly-recognized spokesperson for fellowships that offer heart disease medications, diet plans, and other treatments aimed at reducing heart disease. It is said that immediately after a Supreme person has a heart charge or major heart surgery, hundreds of citizen schedule corporal examinations - especially men.

The heart disease is not, of course, an advantageous caress for the Supreme person undergoing it. It can awaken them to their need for lifestyle changes, but other than that, it is just as excruciating for the Supreme as for those who have no claim to fame.

No One Is Invincible

Whether it is a Supreme person with heart disease or a person who is Supreme only to his or her family, no one is invincible. That may be one of the biggest lessons to be learned from hearing of yet someone else Supreme person with heart disease. someone else big part is that we should all heed the multitude of warnings, and take performance to prevent heart disease in ourselves and our loved ones.

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rehabilitation and prognosis of Cardiovascular Disease

Diagnosing cardiovascular disease is becoming more sophisticated. Prognosis begins with a curative exam and patient history. This course may be supplemented with a collection of tests that may confirm or refute the physician's suspicions of the presence of cardiovascular disease. Practice stress tests using a motor driven treadmill with the patient hooked to an Ecg have gained popularity in the last 10 years or so. It is a noninvasive test using covering electrodes on the chest that are sensitive to the electrical actions of the heart. Mechanical anomalies of the heart produce abnormal electrical impulses that are displayed on the Ecg strip. These are read and interpreted by the physicians.

The treadmill "road tests" the heart as it works progressively harder to meet the addition oxygen requirement as the Practice protocol becomes more physically demanding . This test is more definite for men than women. The gender divergence in response to the treadmill test is not thoroughly understood, but it is believed that women's breasts and extra fat tissue interfere with the reception of electrical impulses by the chest electrodes.

In some cases a thallium treadmill test is required because it is more sensitive; however, it is also much more expensive. This involves the injection of radioactive thallium during the final tiny of the tread mill test. Thallium is accepted, or taken up, by general heart muscle but not by is chemic heart muscle. The absorption or nonabsorption of thallium can be seen on a television monitor. The thallium stress test increases diagnostic sensitivity to cardiovascular disease to approximately 90%.

Echocardiography is a safe, noninvasive technique that uses sound waves to resolve the size of the heart, the thickness of the walls, and the function of its valves. Cardiac catheterization is an invasive technique in which a slender tube is threaded from a blood vessel in an arm or leg into the coronary arteries. A liquid divergence dye that can be seen on x-ray film is injected into the coronary arteries. X-ray films are taken throughout the course to search where and how severely the coronary arteries are narrowed.
Medical Treatment

A collection of drugs have been advanced that lower blood pressure and cholesterol, minimize the likelihood of blood clotting, and dissolve clots during a heart attack. Even aspirin seems to playa valuable role in preventing a second heart charge or an initial heart attack. The more aspirin is studied, the good it appears to be.

Surgical techniques have also affected the medicine of cardiovascular disease. Coronary artery by pass surgical operation is designed to shunt blood colse to an area of blockage by removing a leg vein and sewing one end of a leg vein into the aorta and the other end into a coronary artery below the blockage, thereby restoring blood flow to the heart muscle.

The internal mammary arteries also are used for bypass grafts. In fact, many authorities consider these to be the ideal grafts. There are two internal mammary arteries, but the one in the left side of the chest is preferable because it is nearer to the coronary arteries. Many surgeons would rather not use both arteries in the same patient because the diminished flow of blood to the chest impairs curative of the surgical wound. Also, fashioning bypass grafts out of these arteries is time tantalizing precision surgery, and there are only two of them and they don't reach all parts of the heart. The benefit is that 95% of them remain open 10 years after surgery.

Balloon angioplasty uses a catheter with a doughnut shaped balloon at the tip. The catheter is positioned at the narrow point in the artery, and the balloon is inflated, which cracks and compresses the plaque, stretches the artery wall, and widens the blood vessel to allow greater blood flow . Laser angioplasty uses heat to burn away plaque if the catheter can be maneuvered into the definite position. This technology appears to be useful for patients with confident types of atherosclerotic narrowings or blockages. Coronary artherectomy, one of the newest techniques, uses a specially tipped catheter equipped with a high speed rotary cutting blade to shave off plaque.

Catheterization techniques are also used to implant a coronary stent in a diseased artery. The stent is a flexible, metallic tube that functions like a scaffold to maintain the walls of diseased arteries, thus maintaining an open tube for blood flow . Stents are positioned in such arteries by a catheter with a deflated balloon inside the stent. When correctly positioned, the balloon is inflated, causing the stent to expand. This operation stretches the artery. Then the balloon is withdrawn, leaving the vast stent behind to keep the blood vessel open.

This technique shows much promise, but there is a major limitation associated with the procedure: it increases the risk of blood clots forming at the site of the stent. To counteract this, patients are given blood thinning medications for 2 to 3 months following its implantation, and then they are maintained on aspirin thereafter.

Artificial valves have been advanced to replace defective heart valves, and these work quite well. On the other hand, artificial (mechanical) hearts have not performed to hope because contemporary technology has not produced a covering smooth adequate to simulate the natural interior of the human heart. Blood clotting continues to occur at the valves in these devices. However, mechanical sustain devices have been successfully used to aid a failing heart while the patient awaits a heart for transplantation.

Heart transplants have continued many lives. The outlook for patients has improved considerably because of the amelioration and use of cyclosporine, an antirejection drug. The 5 year survival rate is up to 72%.

Candidates for transplants are those whose hearts are irreversibly damaged with disease that does not riposte to conventional treatment. Without a new heart, these habitancy will die. In 1968, 23 heart transplants were performed, in 1993, 2298 were performed. The major problems associated with heart transplantation involve too few donors, procurement of a compatible donor heart, and the constant battle against organ rejection by the recipient.

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