Exactly one week after my sixteenth birthday, a specialist in Roanoke diagnosed me with tachycardia. Tachycardia is just a fancy way to say that my heart beats too fast for my body. I wasn’t particularly scared but then it occurred to me, how do I live a normal teenage life with a heart condition? I constantly asked questions and still do today, but at least now I know that I can still have fun and I might get lucky and outgrow it within a few years. I may not be able to run around and play sports as much anymore, but I choose to look on the bright side; it could be worse, right? There are children that have this disease and their hearts are even faster than mine, which causes extensive medical issues, and without treatment can cause death.
In researching this disease I hope to find out more things that I can do to lead a normal style life. My research will focus on how to manage my condition and avoid more medications and hospital stays. At first, I thought I was just winded and I had heart burn. It’s nothing, just calm down; I would tell myself this every time I had an attack. Eventually, I told my mother and she was very concerned, therefore, she immediately took me to the doctor. I can remember the doctor coming in the room, checking my pulse, and diagnosing me right away. “It is very rare for children to have this disease to this extent.” the doctor tells me. Great, now I’m not just a health risk, but I’m a freak too. I couldn’t hear the doctor speaking to me because I was too focused on what I was telling myself. Then, they turned my chest into a robot for a week and had me wear a heart monitor that I insisted that I hide under my clothes so that no one would see. As I conduct the research on this, I hope to find other ways of testing and treatment so that there is no need for children to be strapped to wires constantly. I also hope to see if I can apply the treatment and test alternatives to myself. I try not to dwell on my situation because I know that people have much worse problems that I do, but I can’t help but to think about it every now and again. I try to stay as positive as I could possibly be about this, yet I would still like to find ways to become even more positive and understanding with my life and my diagnosis.
Blood flow to the muscles has been shown to increase with exercise (Lombardo, Rose, Taeschler, Tuluy, Bing, 1953). In this experiment, “blood flow” can be roughly measured as “Mean Arterial Pressure”. Mean Arterial Pressure is defined as the average blood pressure in the arteries throughout the entire cardiac cycle. This can be measured by multiplying “Cardiac Output” by “Total Peripheral Resistance”. Cardiac Output in essence is the volume of blood pumped by the heart in one minute, which can be written as the “Stroke volume (milliliters of blood per beat)” multiplied by “Heart rate (heart beats per minute). “Total Peripheral Resistance” can be defined
It’s the big day of the finals and you are experiencing some anxiety. You walk in the classroom and feel like your heart is going to jump out of your chest. This is a normal response to anxiety by the body known as sinus tachycardia. The heart is like a pump and needs to be taken care of for it to work properly. The heart has its own rhythm and on an electrocardiogram (EKG) should have a synchronous pattern called sinus. The normal sinus rhythm should be around 60-100 beats per minute (LeMone, Burke & Bauldoff, 2011). There are many factors that can change the rate and rhythm of the heart. When sleeping your heart rate tends to be slower and should be slower due to the decreased work load on the heart. Something as little as being excited or exercising can cause your heart rate to increase and due to signals to your heart telling it to beat faster to supply the body with more blood and oxygen. The heart can beat over 100 beats per minute at rest, even when supine so it is important to assess for symptoms of any complications (Olhansky & Sullivan, 2013). A normal rhythm, but faster than 100 beats per minute is called sinus tachycardia (LeMone et al., 2011).
Cardiovascular disease has become an increasingly significant issue in many countries as it is the leading cause of death for the whole human population. According to World Health Organization, ischemic heart disease had caused about 7 million people to lose their life in 2011. One of the most common cardiovascular illnesses is myocardial infarction. It is defined as the death of cardiac myocytes due to complete blockage of a coronary artery. t-PA is a thrombolytic drug that used to treat myocardial infarction by dissolving the thrombus that causes the occlusion.
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle, causing the heart muscle to become enlarged, thick or rigid. In rare cases, the muscle tissue in the heart is replaced with scar tissue.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States. It is very important to learn about the heart to prevent heart disease. Many forms of heart disease can be prevented and treat with healthy lifestyle choices. For someone who has heart disease or does not; there is information, facts, symptoms, different types, diagnoses, tests, treatment, care, and living and managing that can be given.
October 9th, 2016, after being discharged just three days prior, a 44-year-old African American female presented in the emergency department with complaints of shortness of breath with minimal activity and chest pain that radiates to the back and shoulders. Vitals signs were taken and reveled a heart rate of 134, blood pressure of 219/147 and a respiratory rate 28. Observation of the patient showed that she was slightly diaphoretic and anxious. Lab work was ordered to be drawn as well as an ECG and the admission process began. Admitting diagnosis recorded was tachycardia, elevated troponin, acute exacerbation of congestive heart failure, acute chronic congestive heart failure, chest pain and pleuritic chest pain.
(Slide 2) What is Cardiomyopathy? If we break down the word we can see “Cardio” which means of the heart, “myo” which means muscle, and “pathy” which means disease, therefore cardiomyopathies are diseases of the heart muscle. (Slide 3) There are 3 main types of cardiomyopathies; hypertrophic, dilated, and restrictive. I will only be discussing dilated cardiomyopathy, which is characterized by the enlargement of the hearts chambers with impaired systolic function. It is estimated that as many as 1 of 500 adults may have this condition. Dilated cardiomyopathy is more common in blacks than in whites and in males than in females. It is the most common form of cardiomyopathy in children and it can occur at any age (CDC).
will need an MRI during their life time.”(3) However, there are many risks for MRI scans
When you have Tachycardis your heart rate is above 100 beats per minute. Tachycardis is caused by heart injuries from past times. Tachycardis usually occurs months or years after a heart attack. A treatment for Tachycardis can be inserting a device called a defibrillator. A defibrillator will detect and treat abnormally fast heart rhythms.
After her doctor’s visit that she reluctantly went to, she announced to the family that she was suffering from a damaged heart valve. We were all terrified about what would happen to her, but she assured us that the doctor said it could be fixed with a minimal risk.
Now I realize that the heart-sick are not always curable by a new heart or a Dacron tube.
The rate of heart disease seems to be on a constant incline in the America. As more of our population begins to indulge in the goodies our first world society has to offer, the rise of heart defects at an even younger age is emerging. According to the CDC about one third of the United States children are either overweight or obese. This interest in obesity as a social issue is what inspired me to pursue a career in pediatric cardiology. The way my personality type is wired seems to be indicative of a position in which I can grow as well as prosper. In addition, I believe that being able to identify a disease within a person at a young age and follow them in their treatment modalities throughout their life is one of the greatest honors any
CAD can also cause, what is called Arrhythmia, or a fast heartbeat. Arrhythmia can range from slow, fast or an irregular heartbeat, there are also indications of anxiety, shortness of breath, and weakness. In severe cases arrhythmia can change, slow or even stop the heart’s power to pump blood. Coronary Artery disease also effects the kidneys, organs that are bean shaped, about the size of a fist. The kidneys are located just under the ribs and there is one on each side of the spine. In twenty-four hours the kidneys can screen about 120 to 150 quarts of blood to create roughly one two quarts of urine. The urine flows through two slim tubes of muscle called ureters that are located from the kidneys to the bladder. There is one ureter on each
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, otherwise known as POTS, is an autonomic nervous system disorder that can be debilitating in severe circumstances. POTS is defined as the presence of chronic symptoms of orthostatic intolerance for at least 6 months along with a fall in blood pressure (>20/10) and increased heart rate (>30) within 10 minutes of standing from laying down.1 Symptoms of POTS include but are not limited to lightheadedness, fainting, heart palpitations, chest pain, nausea, fatigue, headache, blurry vision, breathing difficulty, irritable bowel symptoms, and loose joints.2 POTS commonly occurs in young women of child-bearing age.3 This syndrome affects up to 3 million patients in the United States; however, the prevalence
There were a lot of patients that came into the emergency room on Friday November 20, 2015 that had heart problems. The first patient I observed was only thirty and she had been having tachycardia since two o’clock Thursday afternoon. She stated that she has had this problem before but it never lasted this long. She was said to have SVT prior to arriving to the emergency room by the ambulance crew. Upon arriving in the ER her heartrate got up to 220 beats per minutes. The next patient that I saw was brought in because his wife said that he was shaking more than usual, he had Parkinson’s. There was a young lady that came in who had hit her head almost three weeks ago and was diagnosed with a concussion at that time. She was now having neck and head pain and numbness in the back of her head. There was another assumed SVT patient. Her heartrate was around 170. There was also a homeless man that was brought in complaining of pain all over and all he kept asking for was morphine