Heart Diseases - Treatment Of Different Types

Introduction

Heart disease is a general term that refers to a variety of acute and chronic medical conditions that affect one or more of the components of the heart. Diseases affecting the heart may be structural or functional. Anything that damages the heart or decreases the heart’s supply of oxygen, makes it less efficient, reduces its ability to fill and pump, will disrupt the coordinated relationship between the heart, kidneys, and blood vessels and will harm not only the heart but the rest of the body as well.

Heart disease is any disorder that affects the heart's ability to function normally. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart itself.

Heart Failure- Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can’t pump blood the way it should. In some cases, the heart can’t fill with enough blood “Heart failure” doesn’t mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. However, it’s a serious condition that requires medical care. Heart failure is also called congestive heart failure, or CHF. "Congestive" means fluid is building up in the body because the heart isn't pumping properly.

Treatment

Treatment of the Cause: If the cause of heart failure is a narrowed or leaking heart valve or an abnormal connection between heart chambers, surgery can often correct the problem. Blockage of a coronary artery may require treatment with drugs, surgery, or angioplasty Antihypertensive drugs can reduce and control high blood pressure. Antibiotics can eliminate some infections.

Treatment of a stomach ulcer or use of an iron supplement may correct anemia. Drugs, surgery, or radiation therapy can be used to manage an overactive thyroid gland, and thyroid hormones can be given to manage an under active thyroid gland.

Heart Tumor

Heart Tumors that arise from the normal tissues that makes up theheart. This is in contrast to secondary tumors of the heart, which are typically either metatastic from another part of the body, or infiltrate the heart via direct extension from the surrounding tissues.

Treatment

A single small noncancerous primary heart tumor can be surgically removed, usually resulting in a cure. If a large noncancerous primary tumor is significantly reducing blood flow through the heart, removal of the part of the tumor that does not grow into the heart wall may improve heart functionabout half of newborns who have noncancerous rhabdomyomas, tumors regress without treatment; in the other half, the tumors do not grow any larger and do not require treatment. In infants and children, a fibroma may be successfully removed if it does not affect the wall between the ventricles (septum). Tumors that affect this wall usually also affect the electrical conduction system of the heart and cannot be surgically removed.

Angina pain-Chest pain that originates from the heart muscle is called angina pectoris. Angina is a signal that the heart muscle is not getting sufficient blood flow, specifically sufficient oxygen. Lack of oxygen is termed ischemia. Blood flow is most often reduced by coronary artery disease (CAD), which causes a narrowing of the arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle. Narrowing in the coronary arteries occurs as a result of calcium and fatty deposits, called plaques. In more severe cases, heart attack (myocardial infarction), heart failure, or rhythm abnormalities can cause sudden cardiac death.

Treatment

Severe atherosclerotic narrowing of one or more coronary arteries is responsible for myocardial ischemia and angina pectoris in most patients with stable angina pectoris. The coronary arteries of patients with stable angina also contain many nonobstructive plaques, which are prone to fissures or rupture resulting in presentation of acute coronary syndromes (unstable angina, myocardial infarction, sudden ischemic death). In addition to symptomatic relief of symptoms and an increase in angina-free walking time with antianginal drugs or revascularization procedures, the recent emphasis of treatment has been to reduce adverse clinical outcomes (coronary death and myocardial infarction).