This book describes Heart Muscle Diseases, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Cardiovascular disease (heart disease) is a group of diseases that affect the heart muscles or blood vessels (arteries, capillaries and veins).
Cardiovascular disease suggests any disease that affects the cardiovascular system, mainly cardiac disease, vascular diseases of the brain and kidney, and peripheral arterial disease.
The causes of cardiovascular disease are various but atherosclerosis and hypertension are the most frequent.
Cardiac Emergencies
- Cardiac arrest is the sudden halt of normal heart rhythm which can involve a number of diseases such as tachycardia, an excessively rapid heart beat which stops the heart from effectively pumping blood, which is an irregular and ineffective heart rhythm, and asystole which is the end of heart rhythm entirely.
- Cardiac tamponade is a disorder in which the fibrous sac enclosing the heart fills with excess fluid or blood, reducing the heart's capability to beat properly.
Tamponade is treated by pericardiocentesis, the gentle entry of the needle of a syringe into the pericardial sac (avoiding the heart itself) on an angle, normally from just below the sternum, and carefully withdrawing the tamponading fluids.
Heart Muscle Diseases: - Coronary heart disease (also ischemic heart disease)
Coronary Heart Disease happens when the coronary arteries become blocked.
The blood supply to the part of the heart cannot provide the oxygen and nutrients to the muscles of the heart.
The cells in that part of the heart died off and that part of the heart is unable to function.
This is called a heart attack.
Coronary Heart Disease can lead to sudden death. - Cardiomyopathy - diseases of cardiac muscle
- Hypertensive heart disease - diseases of the heart secondary to high blood pressure
- Heart failure – failure of the heart due to abnormal functioning of the heart
- Cor pulmonale - a failure of the right side of the heart
- Cardiac dysrhythmias - abnormalities of heart rhythm
- Inflammatory heart disease – inflammatory diseases of the heart
- Endocarditis – inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium.
The structures most often affected are the heart valves. - Inflammatory cardiomegaly – enlargement of the heart due to inflammation
- Myocarditis – inflammation of the myocardium, the muscular part of the heart.
- Valvular heart disease- abnormal valves due to congenital or infections of the heart valve
- Cerebrovascular disease - disease of blood vessels that supplies to the brain such as stroke
- Peripheral arterial disease - disease of blood vessels that supplies to the arms and legs
- Congenital heart disease - heart structure malformations existing at birth.
- Rheumatic heart disease - heart muscles and valves damage due to rheumatic fever caused by streptococcal bacteria infections
Humans are born with a fixed number of heart muscle cells or cardiomyocytes which rise in size as the heart expands larger during childhood development.
Recent research indicates that cardiomyocytes are really slowly replaced as the person ages.
Less than 50% of the cardiomyocytes at birth are replaced during a normal life span.
The growth of individual cardiomyocytes not only happens during normal heart development.
It also happens in reaction to extensive exercise, heart disease, or heart muscle injury such as after a myocardial infarction.
The cardiomyocytes develop larger in diameter but have the same length, leading to heart wall thickening.
The death of a heart muscle cell is normally caused by lack of oxygen reaching the cell.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Heart and Diseases
Chapter 2 Coronary Heart Disease
Chapter 3 Cardiomyopathy
Chapter 4 Myocarditis
Chapter 5 Holiday Heart Syndrome
Chapter 6 Ventricular Septal Defect
Chapter 7 Cardiac Syndrome X
Chapter 8 Cardiac Fibrosis
Epilogue
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