The heart is a fist sized organ made of muscles, chambers, valves and blood vessels. Any malfunctions or damage to any part of the heart imparts its functions. Most of us think about a heart attack when we talk about heart diseases, but the heart is prone to many problems and potential diseases. In most cases, accumulation of plaques causes heart/cardiac diseases. With the heart being a complicated organ, surgical procedures to treat cardiac diseases are itself complicated. Here is the brief information about different types of cardiac diseases.
Types of Cardiac Diseases
Coronary Artery Disease / Atherosclerosis
Buildup of plaque in the arteries of the heart is termed as coronary artery disease. The deposits of cholesterol in the arteries cause blockages. The arteries which have soft and smooth heads with elastic body are narrowed and made rigid. The rigidity restricts the blood flow and lead to oxygen starvation. The vessels are inflamed and may even result with clotting of blood. So, the heart could not pump the nutrients properly.
Heart blockage emerges as one of the cardiac diseases as an outcome of sedentary lifestyle. This condition is treated by medications as well as surgery.
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscles. It is one of the progressive and degenerative diseases of the heart, where the muscles of the chambers becomes extremely thick and abnormally stiff. Due to the addition stiffness, the heart muscles unable to pump out the blood, leading to heart failure. Besides, it may also cause irregular heartbeats.
Cardiomegaly
Enlargement of heart is termed as Cardiomegaly. It is one of the common cardiac diseases. A heart becomes enlarged for numerous reasons, but mainly blocks in the arteries and uncontrolled blood pressure levels enlarge a heart. While the condition may improve over time with healthy lifestyle, it may also aggravate, causing congestive heart failure. However, cardiomegaly is like an autoimmune disorder where the patients may need to take medications until they live.
Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure refers to chronic failure of the heart, where heart is no longer an active organ to pump the blood and oxygen. The cardiac diseases related to heart failure is classified into two types, systolic heart failure and diastolic heart failure.
Systolic Heart Failure
This is a condition where the heart is no longer efficient to pump the blood required by the entire body. The quantity of the blood pumped out by the heart is measured, ejection fraction. The ejection fraction should be greater than 55% and when this fraction decreases, it leads to systolic heart failure. Imagine, what happens when the blood is not pumped out from the heart! The blood remains in the heart chambers, it is not sent out and there is no room to receive new blood for purification.
Diastolic Heart Failure
It is a condition contrary to the systolic condition. The ventricles of the heart become compressed and they can no longer receive sufficient blood. The fluid remains back in the lungs and leads to congestion.
Ischemic Heart Disease
It is a group of cardiac diseases or condition of the heart affected by lack of oxygen supply to the heart.
Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease means heart disease at birth. The infant born with any defects in the heart is termed as blue baby.
Arrhythmia
It refers to irregular heartbeats. Irregularity of heartbeats need not be extremely too slow or too fast. It simply refers to abnormality in the heartbeats. It can be an emergency condition or can be harmless. It often arise as a sign of other cardiac diseases like high pressure, hardening of heart muscles, heart attack, etc.
Treatment for cardiac diseases often ends with a surgery, where the conditions couldn’t be treated with medications. Surgery involves removal of blockages, replacement of heart valves, etc.
Lowering blood pressure, healthy fats and cholesterol, stress free life and healthy lifestyle makes your heart healthy and reduces the risk of cardiac diseases.
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