Prevention and Treatments of Coronary Heart Disease
Coronary heart disease is caused by the narrowing of the coronary
arteries, which feed the heart. All muscles need a constant supply of
oxygen and nutrients, therefore so does the heart since it to is a
muscle. The heart gets these nutrients and oxygen by the blood carried
to it by the coronary arteries. However, when the coronary arteries
get clogged by fat deposits and cholesterol, the coronary arteries
become narrower, this process is called atherosclerosis, and therefore
not enough blood gets supplied to the heart and results in coronary
heart disease (CHD). There are different forms of CHD which can occur.
If the heart does not receive enough oxygenised blood, the victim can
experience extreme chest pains, this is called angina. When a large
portion of the coronary artery is blocked, possibly by a blood clot,
and the supply to part of the heart is cut off, can result in a heart
attack; heart attacks cause sudden severe chest pains and can be
fatal. Another form of CHD is heart failure which is cause by, again,
the blockage of the coronary artery. The main factors of coronary
heart disease are the following: age, gender, heredity/genetics, body
mass diet, blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, exercise,
diabetes/hyper tension/other associated diseases, alcohol, and social
class. Some of these are inevitably, however there are things which
can be done to prevent CHD, or give treatment to it if necessary.
There are many ways to prevent coronary heart disease, in which ever
form it is in, by which are explained below. Firstly would be to lower
cholesterol levels. Cholest...
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...e (usually taken from a vein in the leg) into the
coronary artery that is blocked. By placing a graft in the diseased
artery, blood can then bypasses the obstruction. If more than one
coronary artery is blocked, multiple grafts can be inserted. As a last
resort, if nothing else has worked, a complete heart transplant it
done, but this is a very difficult procedure and so is only done if
absolutely necessary.
Even though all of these treatments are available, it is preferred by
doctors, that firstly measures to prevent CHD from occurring should be
practiced, and then, if someone does manage to get CHD, then a life
style change should be done before attempting to have surgery, because
in some cases it is possible to over come the problem simply by doing
the basic prevention methods, but just to a slightly higher level.
It occurs because of repetitive electrical activity. This can occur in a patient with early or late heart failure, because there is damage to the heart tissue and the heart beats faster to try to supply the body with blood. Recommended treatment is elective cardioversion. Drugs used include an antidysrhythmic such as Mexitil or Sotalol (Ignatavicius &Workman, p. 728-729).
results in the need for more blood. Since more blood is needed to fill the
If you feel chest pains, shortness of breath, or uncommon heart beats, get medical attention instantly. If any of these complications occur, you'll need to be hospitalized for extra
...ufficiently nourish the organs. This blood flow shortage causes severe damage to organs and tissue. Symptoms of cardiomyopathy include shortness of breath and other breathing difficulties, fatigue, swollen legs and feet, and irregular heartbeat. It can lead to heart failure.
... as the heart, major blood vessels, and airways) toward the other side of the chest. The shift can cause the other lung to become compressed, and can affect the flow of blood returning to the heart. This situation can lead to low blood pressure, shock, and death.
“Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body's needs for blood and oxygen” (American Heart Association, 2012, para 3). What this basically means is that the body is functioning in a way that the heart cannot keep up with. Although heart failure can be acute and occur suddenly, it usually develops over time and is a long-term or chronic condition. There are two different types of heart failure, left-sided and right-sided, and they can be caused by other diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, or high blood pressure (National Institutes of Health, 2012). In most cases, both sides of the heart are affected simultaneously.
Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease Cardiovascular Disease, or CVD, is Britains biggest killer, responsible for 40% of premature deaths in Britain. CVD is a comprehensive term for several afflictions of the cardiovascular system - the heart and blood vessels of the body. These afflictions are Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), Atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis, Angina, Coronary Thrombosis and Myocardial Infarction and Stroke. Apart from the high mortality rate - it is estimated that CVD kills 140,000 people a year under 75 years old, chronic heart disease causes incapacitation, suffering and pain in many of it's victims. Much heart disease is also self-inflicted and therefore avoidable.
...gs causing high pressure in the arteries; leading to an irreversible pulmonary hypertension. Other complications include, “aortic insufficiency, leaking of the valve that separates the left ventricle from the aorta; damage to the electrical conduction system of the heart during surgery causing an irregular heart rhythm; delayed growth and development; heart failure; stroke; infective endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart.”
There are almost 7 million Americans in the United States that suffer from Coronary Artery Disease today. The prognosis for many of these patients depends upon the major therapeutic option of medical management that they choose to receive, the most essential variables that predict the prognosis and likelihood for future events are the extent and severity of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Basically, this translates to mean that the more abnormal the scans and tests are, the higher the prognosis is going to be for future coronary events to occur and therefore the higher the prognosis is going to be for a shorter life span, the lower the progression of the disease the higher the chance is going to be for a longer life span for the patient. A higher risk patient is going to be one with extensive defects from the disease, a patient with little to no defects is going to be low risk, and those with limited defects are going to be at a more intermediate risk. Whether it is because of their familial history of the disease or because of risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or obesity really does not matter considerably because many of the 500,000 deaths that occur from this disease could be prevented if more of the risk factors were prevented. This disease is the number one killer of both men and women older than 65 years of age because coronary artery disease in contracted as a result from the narrowing of the coronary arteries that feed the heart, and when those arteries become clogged and cannot supply enough blood, oxygen and nutrients in the coronary arteries, people develop chest pains, also more commonly known as angina which is a secondary condition of having Coronary Artery Disease. . These t...
Myocardial infarction occurs when the coronary arteries are blocked by a blood clot. It is commonly known as “heart attack”. The heart needs its own constant supply of oxygen and nutrients to work properly. Two coronary arteries delivery oxygenated blood to the heart, and if one of these two arteries fail or become blocked, then a portion of the heart will not acquire the necessary oxygen. This clot could be because of CAD (coronary artery disease), which happens when the inner walls of the coronary arteries thicken because of build up of cholesterol, fatty deposit, calcium among other elements that are carried in the blood (Boston Scientific, 2009).
According the statistics from the American Heart Association (2012), when electrical impulses to the heart suddenly become uncoordinated, causing the immediate cessation of the heart to function, this is considered a cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest that occurs outside of the hospital has an incidence of 359,400 with a survival rate of 9.5 % (American Heart Association (AHA), 2012). In absence circulation, neurological injury occurs from the lack of oxygen delivered to the brain (Deckard & Ebright, 2011). This disruption of oxygen can cause a cascade of events that include hypoxia, cellular death, the activation of the inflammatory response, and cerebral edema. The continuation
My eyes pop open, and I look at the alarm clock; it is 1am and time to get ready for work. I creep down the stairs to pour myself a cup of coffee, taking care not to wake my kids. Today’s heart transplants weigh on my mind – there is a heart coming in at 3am for a young patient with cardiomyopathy – and I begin to read my surgery notes. A deathly ill 8 year old, who had been struggling for most of his young life with dizzy spells and fainting, had collapsed in gym class. It was discovered that his heart muscle was laboring to do the work of circulating his blood through his body.
The heart beats when electrical signals move through it. Ventricular fibrillation is a condition in which the heart's electrical activity becomes disordered. When this happens, the heart's lower (pumping) chambers contract in a rapid, unsynchronized way. (The ventricles "flutter" rather than beat.) The heart pumps little or no blood therefore the probability of death is high.
It will help pump blood and oxygen through your body. Your damaged or diseased heart will be removed. The new heart will be placed and attached to the blood vessels that were cut.
In (2000). B. Gersh (Ed.), Mayo Clinic Heart Book (2 ed., pp. 72-73). New York, NY: William Morrow of Harper Collins Publishers. 5 Burris, M.D., J. O. (2001).