Health And Wellness Center: Heart disease II

The heart is a very complex vital structure that can be affected by different diseases depending on the structures that are altered.

The problems and heart disease are among the leading causes of death and disability in Western countries. In your hand it is to reduce risk and prevent changes that are certain.

Cardiac arrhythmias

Cardiac arrhythmias are disorders of the rhythm of the heartbeat, which is regular and usually under normal conditions between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Arrhythmias can be either by increased heart rate, tachycardia, either by default, bradycardias.

Almost 45% of cardiology consultations are arrhythmias, these being of different kinds, such as atrial fibrillation (65%), the conduction blocks (28.2%), supraventricular tachycardias (7.2% ), atrial flutter (4.2%) or ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (2.4%).

Atrial fibrillation is a tachycardia originating in the atria and causes the heart to contract inefficiently and therefore not pump blood properly. Usually it caused by ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, anemia, hyperthyroidism or certain drugs. Flutter atrial tachycardia is also produced by a conduction of electricity by abnormal pathway around the tricuspid valve.

Ventricular tachyarrhythmias are more severe. In ventricular tachycardia the rhythm of the heartbeat marks the ventricle, increasing heart rate, and if it persists you can get to give a ventricular fibrillation, where the rhyme is fast and chaotic, so that pumping is not effective and can occur cardiac arrest. The causes are often ischemic heart disease, the lack of oxygen or altered levels of certain electrolytes such as sodium or potassium.

Locks make the heart beat slower and can be caused by ischemic heart disease, systemic diseases, cardiomyopathies, drugs, congenital diseases or aging tissues, being the most common cause in adults. Sometimes treatment may require placement of a pacemaker.

Valvular

Valvular heart disease are disorders of different heart valves, are those of the left heart (aorta and mitral) or the right (tricuspid and pulmonary). The valves can produce pathology well suffer a narrowing that blocks the passage of blood, valvular stenosis or not closed completely and produce a flow of blood, valvular insufficiency.

Aortic stenosis is the most common valve disease, with a prevalence of 10%, mainly caused by valve deterioration due to aging, but also can be caused by a congenital abnormality or impairment of it by rheumatic fever, which is secondary to a bacterial infection.

Mitral regurgitation is the second most common valve disease (5%) and is usually especially degenerative origin, but can also be by rheumatic fever, endocarditis or ischemic heart disease.

The rest of valvular disease are less common and its causes are similar.

Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathies are disorders of the heart muscle to be affected can not pump blood properly. The three types of cardiomyopathy are:

Long, which affects 3-10 per 100,000 people, is generally unknown origin or secondary to alcohol consumption mainly and where the wall thickness decreases so that the cavities are dilated and can not pump blood hard.
Hypertrophic, which affects one in 500 people, usually congenital in most cases and it thickened heart walls, which reduces the size of the cavities and reduces the blood supply.
Restrictive, unusual and unknown disease or myocardial infiltrating origin, it is not properly heart relaxes so that decreases filling cavities and leads to heart failure.

Pericarditis

Pericarditis in inflammation of the pericardium and can be acute or chronic. Acute pericarditis affects 1% of the population and accounts for 5% of consultations in the emergency room with chest pain non-ischemic origin. 80% are caused by a virus or of unknown origin and have a good prognosis.

Chronic pericarditis is very rare and usually due to an untreated acute pericarditis, chronic pericardial effusions or to unknown causes. Inflamed pericardium long thickens, constricting the heart and prevents it dilates correctly.