Friday, August 24, 2012

Heart palpitations after eating

Heart palpitations after eating are one of the causes of heart palpitations seen in patients. This may be normal under certain conditions, but if it is associated with other symptoms can be a problem for the patients.
After you read this article you know which are the mechanisms, symptoms, causes, treatments and preventions of heart palpitations after eating.
Heart palpitations after eating are fast heart beats that occurs after eating and may or may not feel the patient. Heart palpitations may be due to cardiac or extracardiac. Very important is the severity of the heart palpitations after eating. They can be without hemodynamic significance (just heart palpitations and anxiety)  or hemodynamically significant, considered severe (with low blood sugar, syncope, chest pain and difficulty of breathing).

Mechanism of heart palpitations after eating  

After eating a meal, need for blood in the stomach and surrounding organs increases and thus aids digestion. In this process of digestion and absorption of food, increased heart rate may be undetectable or may be felt as palpitations. If you want to see if you have heart palpitations    you have to measure your pulse rate. This can be done at any hand with the index and the middle finger of the wrist from the other hand. If the pulse rate is over 90 -100 beats and it is maintained over this values,  the patient should consult a doctor.

Other symptoms that accompany heart palpitations after eating

This are nausea, dizziness, fatigue, asthenia, chest pain, shortness of breath  and discomfort in abdominal region felt as feeling bloated. After dinner heart palpitations after eating can may the patient inability to sleep in peace at night and this may be a very important problem for the patient.

Causes of heart palpitations after eating

There are many causes for this condition. One of this is hiatal hernia, which is a condition that upper part of the stomach enters into the thorax. For this, patients with hiatal hernia should avoid lying position for at least two hours after a meal.
Today an important cause for heart palpitations after eating is obesity. More persons are obese due to environmental factors (a sedentary lifestyle, a diet high in sugar, fast food). In this persons suffering from obesity, the heart must work harder to pump the blood to the stomach. Severe anemia is another cause for heart palpitations after eating. In this patients hemoglobin value are very low and may be accompanied by low serum ferritin values. This palpitations are often accompanied with fatigue, asthenia and adinamie.
There are also hormonal imbalances that cause heart palpitations after eating. Patients with hyperthyroidism (disease of the thyroid gland with overproduction of thyroid hormones).

Treatment of heart palpitations after eating

There is no specific treatment for patients with heart palpitations after eating. They must have a lifestyle adapted for prevent heart palpitations. For example:
  • Have frequent meals and few quantitative
  • Not have a sedentary lifestyle
  • Not have a diet high in sugar and caffeine
  • To conduct periodic reviews to prevent severe anemia or hyperthyroidism

If heart palpitations after eating continue after prevention methods the patients should consult a doctor.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Leaking heart valve

Mortality and morbidity thought leaking heart valve are  an important part of cardiovascular pathology.  The main changes in  the study of leaking heart valve involves an evaluation of their function and etiology.
So, rheumatic etiology is declining, while the degenerative and ischemic etiology is growing.
Clinical evaluation methods have the same value (family history, physical examination), but some paraclinical methods ( cardiac ultrasound and Doppler) have an important role.

Types of leaking heart valve

Leaking heart valve may occur at the four heart valve: mitral valve, aortic valve, pulmonary valve and tricuspid valve.
The most common type of leaking heart valve is mitral regurgitation. It is characterized by regurgitation of blood in systole ( contraction of heart) from the left ventricle into the left atrium. There are two causes of mitral regurgitation: acute and chronic. The etiology of mitral regurgitation can be inflammatory, but also degenerative and structural. Chronic mitral regurgitation lead to expansion of left atrium.   Echocardiography provides important information in mitral regurgitation.
Another type of leaking heart valve is aortic regurgitation. It is incomplete closure of aortic valve in diastole (relaxation of heart). Aortic valves are affected primary by acute articular rheumatism, infectious endocarditis and degeneration and it can be acute or chronic.
Two other leaking heart valve are tricuspid regurgitation and pulmonary regurgitation. Tricuspid regurgitation is characterized by regurgitation of blood in systole from the right ventricle into the right atrium because of the incomplete closure of the tricuspid orifice.

Leaking heart valve symptoms

Symptoms of patients with   leaking heart valve depends on regurgitation grade and how to install (suddenly or gradually). Patients with small regurgitation can be asymptomatic. There are some  common  symptoms to the patients with leaking heart valve:
-          dyspnea on effort (shortness of breath or air hunger);
-          cough;
-          angina pectoris on effort (chest pain on effort) or at rest;
-          heart murmur;
-          heart palpitations (heart beats more than 90 per minute);
-          asthenia and adinamie;
-          fatigue;
-          rarely may occur syncope;
-          pale skin on  clinical examination.

Leaking heart valve diagnosis

Positive clinical diagnosis is based on present of heart murmur (systolic or diastolic) with different characters. Most used methods for diagnosis leaking heart valve are echocardiography, chest radiography, electrocardiography and Doppler exam.

Treatment and evolution of patients with leaking heart valve

Treatment of asymptomatic patients with leaking heart valve is not necessary. To the patients with symptoms should avoid exercise and salt. There are also treatments with drugs and surgery for leaking heart valve.
Evolution and prognosis of leaking heart valve depend on the importance blood reflux, of how to install (acute or chronic) and of the etiology. Patients with small or average regurgitation may remain asymptomatic a long time, but patients with complications (infectious endocarditis, atrial fibrillation) have obvious symptoms. Patients with acute leaking heart valve have serious prognosis.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Heart attack symptoms in women over 40

Cardiovascular diseases and especially ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart attack are some
of the causes of mortality and morbidity in both women and men, but heart attack symptoms
in women over 40 may differ from those of men.
Of certain statistical date cardiovascular disease is the first cause of the mortality in women.
Risk factors for heart attack
There are several risk factors that cause different heart attack symptoms in women over 40 :
  • Obesity, high blood pressure and hypercholesterolemia (increasing the percentage of fat
    in the blood) especially triglycerides.
  • Another risk factor is use of oral contraceptives and
    menopause.
  • A small percentage of patients who use oral contraceptives appear hypertension
    unrelated to dose contraceptive. However, patients with controlled hypertension may use
    oral contraceptives, but under supervision. If the consumption of oral contraceptives added
    smoking the risk of heart attack increase. If we compare mortality rates of cardiovascular
    disease in men and women over 40 will see a significant increase in mortality after
    menopause.

Heart attack symptoms in women over 40

Today, there are several features of heart attack symptoms in women over 40. The main heart
attack symptoms in women over 40 is not chest pain, but dyspnea which represent shortness
of breath. This symptoms may appear a few hours, days or months before heart attack
symptoms. Most minim discomfort may be an atypical sign or a symptom for heart attack.
One of these is atypical chest pain for which women do not go to the doctor only if the is
persistent and upset the patient. Sometimes heart attack symptoms in women over 40 may be
the absence of pain. Absence of pain can be attributed to nervous or mental disorders. But,
heart attack symptoms in women over 40 like atypical chest pain have a worse prognostic
then men.
Unusual fatigue is another heart attack symptoms in women over 40. This fatigue can be felt
as a state of drowsiness. Patients may not take into account this symptom believing that it is
simply missing out of sleep, an infection with a virus or adverse effect of another drug and not
present at the doctor. Patients may be associated nausea, sweating and chills.
Pain in the calf may be a sign for deep vein thrombosis which may eventually lead to heart
attack. This is another heart attack symptoms in women over 40 which occurs predominantly
in patients with hormone therapy, smokers, who just had surgery or in patients who have
been on a plane flight. If pain is sudden or gradual, patients should consult their doctor
immediately.
Other symptoms or signs for heart attack may be serious and can lead to death of patients if they are not recognized in time.
So how do you know if you have a heart attack?

At the early signs or symptoms, the patients must go to the doctor because they can be heart attack symptoms in women over 40 and their persistence can lead to death.

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