Myocarditis

Myocarditis is a type of heart disease that is the inflammation of myocardium. Myocardium is the part of the heart that has more muscles compared to other parts. Myocarditis is caused by infections that can be viral or bacterial. The usual signs of myocarditis are heart failure quickly, chest pain and sudden death. There are various kinds of heart diseases from which people suffer. The neglect and wrong diagnosis of the disease can ave fatal consequences and at times affects the other parts of the body as well. Any kind of symptoms should not be neglected. Expert help should always be taken when there is need. Heart diseases are rampant among those who lead an extremely stressful life that involves physical and mental stress. However there are other causes as well like genetic and congenital defects that cause heart disease. The signs and symptoms showed by individuals having myocarditis are usually varied.

People having myocarditis have signs like stabbing chest pains, palpitations that is caused by arrhythmias, congestive failure of the heart. The congestive heart failure leads to hepatic congestion, edema and a feeling of breathlessness. Myocarditis can also cause fever that is the rheumatic fever and sudden death at times. Myocarditis is most of the times caused by viral infections due to which there are symptoms like diarrhea, pain in the joints and extreme fatigue. Myocarditis is linked with pericarditis often. Many patients show signs and symptoms that points to concurrent myocarditis and pericarditis. There are many factors that leads to the formation of myocarditis in the heart. The factors causing myocarditis have been identified by experts.

Viral infections like the presence of viruses like enterovirus, Coxsackie virus, rubella virus, polio virus, cytomegalovirus, and hepatitis C can cause myocarditis. Bacterias like brucella, corynebacterium diphtheriae, gonococcus, haemophilus influenzae, actinomyces, tropheryma whipplei, and vibrio cholerae are the causes of myocarditis. Spirochetal like borrelia burgdorferi, leptospirosis and protozoal infection like toxoplasma gondii and trypanosoma cruzi are the causes of myocarditis. Parasites like Echinococcus granulosus, visceral larva migrans, Wuchereria bancrofti, schistosoma, Taenia solium and trichinella spiralis. Drugs too are the contributing factors in causing myocrditis. Drugs containing chemotherapy, ethanol, and antipsychotics can cause this heart disease along with toxins and heavy metals. Electric shock, hyperpyrexia, and radiation too causes the disease.

Myocardium can be diagnosed on the results of electrocardiographic results (ECG), elevated CRP and/or ESR and increased IgM (serology). Markers of myocardial damage (troponin or creatine kinase cardiac isoenzymes) are advanced. The ECG show the diffusion of the T wave inversions and the elevations of saddle-shaped ST-segment. These are also found in pericarditis. The best way to detect myocarditis is biopsy of the myocardium that can be done by angiography. The biopsy can be done by the tissue sample of the endocardium and myocardium. A pathologists tests it under light microscopy, immunochemistry and special staining methods. Histopathological features of myocardium are myocardial interstitium accompanied by edema and inflammatory infiltrate, with ample lymphocytes and macrophages. Focal destruction of myocytes are the reasons for failure of myocardial pump.

What is a Heart Attack?

What is a Heart Attack?

Have you ever asked yourself the question what is a heart attack? We all know that it can be deadly and that you need immediate attention if you are having one. However, many people do not know exactly what is going on with the heart during a heart attack. Unfortunately, if more people knew exactly what a heart attack was, as well as the warning signs, then there would not be so many heart attack related deaths.

A heart attack is when the blood flow to part of the heart muscle becomes blocked. When the blood flow becomes blocked it must be restored quickly or the part of the heart that is deprived of blood can die. If you think that you, or someone around you, is having a heart attack then it is important to seek out help immediately. If treatment for a heart attack is started within one hour of when the symptoms start then there is a better chance of the treatment working. Since the heart is the muscle that supplies the rest of your body with oxygen rich blood it is crucial that it is functioning properly. Even a few moments without blood flow to the rest of the body can cause major damage to other organs.

Every year over a million people in the United States have heart attacks. Most of the heart attacks can be attributed to the lifestyle of the person. For instance things such as smoking cigarettes, a lot of stress and a poor diet can contribute to the likelihood that a heart attack will occur. The above mentioned factors can put unnecessary strain on the heart muscle thus causing you to have a heart attack. It is important to call an ambulance if you feel like you are having a heart attack. Since the symptoms can come on suddenly it is best to not wait around before getting help. If you wait too long it may be too late.

Over half of the people who suffer a heart attack die. This is because they did not recognize the warning signs and seek out immediate help. Many people could make a full recover from a heart attack if they would just act a little bit quicker. When the heart is involved it is important to know the details. Being able to answer the question what is a heart attack will ensure that you know what is going on if you begin to feel symptomatic.

Types of Heart Disease

Heart disease has become a disease which is effecting maximum number of people. Heart disease effects the functions of the heart. Heart is the most important part of human body which pumps the blood to the blood cells. Inadequate supply of blood may to blood cells can lead to many complications. There are many types of heart disease and each type of heart disease effects the heart in one or another way. The death caused by heart disease has increased in the past few years. The new techniques of diagnosing the heart disease has helped in spreading the awareness about the disease. As the lifestyle of people is changing more and more people are becoming victim of heart disease. The types of heart disease are Coronary heart disease (CHD), Rheumatic heart disease, Heart rhythm disorders, High blood pressure, Hypertensive heart disease, Heart attack, Pulmonary heart disease, Ischemic heart disease, Heart murmurs and Tachycardia.

Types of Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the types of heart disease. It is one of the common types of heart disease caused by inefficiency of blood supply. Most of the people suffer from this type of disease. The heart disease which is caused by the heart damage from rheumatic fever. There are many symptoms of Rheumatic heart disease and each symptom varies according to the heart damage. The heart rhythm disorder is also called as arrhythmia. It is the the disorder in the rhythm of heart. This heart disease can sometime be harmless and dangerous also. One of the common types of heart disease is the disease caused by high blood pressure. It is a disease which is effects maximum number of people. This heart disease is called hypertension. This type of heart disease has to be diagnosed properly to avoid further complications. It is also called as a silent killer. The blood pressure has to be constantly checked. High blood pressure can give arise to many problems. Headache, discomfort and tinnitus are some of the symptoms of blood pressure. Hypertensive heart disease is also a type of heart similar to the heart disease cause by high blood pressure. Symptoms of the hypertensive heart disease are shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, irregular pulse and hypertension.

Heart attack is also one of the types of heart disease. It is very deadly and is causing maximum number of deaths. It is also called as cardiac arrest and the symptom of this disease is the chest pain. Emergency help is also required if the chest pain is too much. Sometime people mistake chest pain with common heart burn. Pulmonary heart disease is caused because of lung disorder. When the flow of blood to the lungs are blocked this causes lung pressure and eventually resulting in a heart disease. The common symptoms of this type of heart disease are syncope, shortness of breath, chest pain, dyspneea, etc. In heart murmur the heart beat of the heart sounds different from the normal beating. Tachycardia results from the fast and rapid heart beat.

Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary Artery Disease

The changing lifestyle of the people are increasing the risk of heart disease. In the past ten years the maximum death is caused by the heart disease. People suffer from various types of heart disease. One of the most common types of heart disease is Coronary Artery Disease. Most of the people in the world suffer from this disease. Any type of the heart disease can be dangerous to health. The heart disease must be diagnosed earlier in order to avoid the complications. As it is a type of cardiovascular disease special care must be paid to your diet and exercise. It is a disease of arteries. It is also called as CAD. It is said to be one of the main causes of heart attack. In coronary artery disease the blood flow is obstructed in the arteries causing heart attack. When the flow of blood is reduced in the arteries the heart muscles get damaged causing heart attack. It can also result in other heart problems like chest pain. In many cases the disease develops over year and only comes in notice when the patient suffers from heart attack. If the disease is diagnosed in early stage then it can be cured to certain extent thus reducing the complications.

If coronary artery disease becomes more complicated it can largely reduce the supply of oxygenated blood to the heart. The signs and symptoms of coronary artery disease are shortness of breath, chest pain and heart attack. Many people ignore shortnesses of breath but it can be dangerous causing heart attack. Shortness of breath is one o the main symptoms of coronary artery disease. Shortness of breath means the you cannot pump enough blood to the heart. This can also cause fatigue and swelling of arms and ankles. Chest pain is also a common symptom of coronary artery disease. The patient suffering from chest pain can experience heaviness in the chest or pressure in the chest. If the patient suffers from frequent chest pain then he or she must be diagnosed. Heart attack has become very common and maximum number of people are falling pray to it. The maximum number of death in the world is caused by heart attack. In many cases the heart attack happens suddenly without any symptoms and signs. The number of deaths caused by coronary disease is increasing with each year. In United States the disease affecting millions of people.

The complications in coronary artery disease give rise to heart attack, arrhythmia and angina pectoris. Coronary artery disease is the result of atherosclerosis. When a plaque is formed in the arteries it causes atherosclerosis. If the patient is getting early symptoms of coronary artery disease an immediate check up must be done to avoid further complications. If the disease is detected earlier it can reduce many risk. There are lot of tests and surgery done to treat the disease. Those suffering from the disease must put more emphasis on the diet.

What is cardiovascular disease?

We read very often about cardiovascular disease, about heart failure, heart attack, stroke and many other disorders, but we don’t know for sure what is cardiovascular disease, why and how it occurs and what changes occur in our body. Next, we will try to explain what is cardiovascular disease in the society of nowadays and how much did medicine advanced in this research field.

What is cardiovascular disease

A question that scientists succeeded to answer but failed to cure.

Nowadays, when more and more people are suffering from heart disease we may wonder what is cardiovascular disease and why is it the first cause of death in most of the countries. We invest millions of dollars on research, looking and testing a lot of drugs, we even found out what is causing AIDS (and we succeeded to transform it in a „chronic” disease) and many other disease with strange names. But all the time there is a new disease, a new virus or bacteria that gives us trouble to treat and sometimes it feels that the more drugs we discover, the more diseases occur. Even so, the most frequent cause of death are
cardiovascular disease, a group of diseases that seem to be entirely understood, with lots of article and medical research, that could make some wonder what else is left to discover. The truth it is far from being so, as with the medical treatment we have at this moment we can only slow down these disease and not cure. Even the prophylaxis of cardiovascular disease is not very promising as we live in the century of unhealthy foods, McDonald’s food, alcohol consumption, smoking, stress, sedentariness and we spend all out time watching TV and working on computer.
After we established how important these diseases are, now let’s finally find out what is cardiovascular disease.

What is cardiovascular disease? A group of disorders that affect heart, brain and blood vessels.

The most frequent cardiovascular diseases:

• hypertension: high blood pressure affects both brain and heart as it can determine bleeding (stroke) or small infarcts in the brain and also determine or worsen heart failure. Beside heart and brain, hypertension also affects eyes and kidneys.
• heart valve disease: valves fail to close or open properly and in time they can cause heart failure,
• irregular heart beats can cause fainting, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue or even heart failure,
• other heart tissues disorders: infection, metabolic disorders that affect heart (different disorders that can determine deposits of some substances in heart tissues like iron, copper etc)
• strokes: a blood cloth can block one of the brain blood vessels and make a variable brain area to die or a blood vessel may break and let blood flow into the brain (this usually occurs in patients with hypertension or with blood vessel malformations).
• atherosclerosis: fat deposits in the blood vessels wall that in time can determine strokes, heart attack, chest pain, arterial disorder with legs pain during walking and even during rest, in advanced cases, neurologic symptoms: dizziness, fatigue, fainting, drowsiness, memory and concentration dysfunction etc.

Now that we found out what is cardiovascular disease, let’s see how is treated. As we’ve seen, it is easy to answer what is cardiovascular disease, but is difficult to treat it. Treatment has two parts and two partners: the patient and the doctor. The patient should respect a healthy diet, with no salt, fats and sweets, attend regular exercise (jogging, running or any kind of sport), no smoking or alcohol consumption, keep a normal weight, control blood pressure and blood sugar. Doctors have a large number of drugs they can use, the purpose of this treatment is to slow down the disease and treat other disorders that may worsen cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, high level of fats in the blood, infections, irregular heart beats etc. It is also important to prevent other cardiovascular events from happening, that’s why antiplatelet medication like aspirin is prescribed in patients that are suffering from cardiovascular disease.
We hope this article can offer a brief answer to the question what is cardiovascular disease and why this medical problem is so important in nowadays society.