Heart disease
Encyclopedia
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term
for a variety of diseases affecting the heart
. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.
.
Coronary artery disease is a disease of the artery caused by the accumulation of atheroma
tous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium. Angina pectoris (chest pain) and myocardial infarction (heart attack)
are symptoms of and conditions caused by coronary heart disease.
Over 459,000 Americans die of coronary heart disease every year. In the United Kingdom
, 101,000 deaths annually are due to coronary heart disease.
.
, hypertension
, hyperhomocysteinemia
and hypercholesterolemia
.
Types of cardiovascular disease include:
to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood
throughout the body. Therefore leading to the heart
and body's failure.
of the heart
. There are four major heart valve which may be affected by valvular heart disease, including the tricuspid
and aortic valve
s in the right side of the heart, as well as the mitral
and aortic valve
s in the left side of the heart.
Umbrella term
An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...
for a variety of diseases affecting the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.
Types
Coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease refers to the failure of the coronary circulation to supply adequate circulation to cardiac muscle and surrounding tissue. Coronary heart disease is most commonly equated with Coronary artery disease although coronary heart disease can be due to other causes, such as coronary vasospasmCoronary vasospasm
Coronary vasospasm is a form of vasospasm affecting the coronary circulation.It can cause Prinzmetal's angina.It can occur in multiple vessels.Atropine has been used to treat the condition....
.
Coronary artery disease is a disease of the artery caused by the accumulation of atheroma
Atheroma
In pathology, an atheroma is an accumulation and swelling in artery walls that is made up of macrophage cells, or debris, that contain lipids , calcium and a variable amount of fibrous connective tissue...
tous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium. Angina pectoris (chest pain) and myocardial infarction (heart attack)
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
are symptoms of and conditions caused by coronary heart disease.
Over 459,000 Americans die of coronary heart disease every year. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, 101,000 deaths annually are due to coronary heart disease.
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathy literally means "heart muscle disease" (myo=muscle, pathy=disease) It is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium (i.e., the heart muscle) for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac deathSudden Cardiac Death
Sudden cardiac death is natural death from cardiac causes, heralded by abrupt loss of consciousness within one hour of the onset of acute symptoms. Other forms of sudden death may be noncardiac in origin...
.
- Extrinsic cardiomyopathies – cardiomyopathies where the primary pathologyPathologyPathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
is outside the myocardium itself. Most cardiomyopathies are extrinsic, because by far the most common cause of a cardiomyopathy is ischemiaIschemiaIn medicine, ischemia is a restriction in blood supply, generally due to factors in the blood vessels, with resultant damage or dysfunction of tissue. It may also be spelled ischaemia or ischæmia...
. The World Health OrganizationWorld Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
calls these specific cardiomyopathies:- Alcoholic cardiomyopathyAlcoholic cardiomyopathyAlcoholic cardiomyopathy is a disease in which the chronic long-term abuse of alcohol leads to heart failure. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a type of dilated cardiomyopathy. Due to the direct toxic effects of alcohol on heart muscle, the heart is unable to pump blood efficiently, leading to heart...
- Coronary artery disease
- Congenital heart disease
- Nutritional diseases affecting the heart
- Ischemic (or ischaemic) cardiomyopathy
- Hypertensive cardiomyopathy
- Valvular cardiomyopathy – see also Valvular heart disease below
- Inflammatory cardiomyopathy – see also Inflammatory heart disease below
- Cardiomyopathy secondary to a systemic metabolic disease
- MyocardiodystrophyMyocardiodystrophyMyocardiodystrophy is a type of noninflammatory heart disease that affects the myocardium. It is characterized by cardiac pain that occurs in the morning and that cannot be stopped even with normal treatments of nitroglycerin, along with other occurrences of heart rhythm disturbances, dyspnea, and...
- Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
- Intrinsic cardiomyopathies – weakness in the muscle of the heart that is not due to an identifiable external cause.
- Dilated cardiomyopathyDilated cardiomyopathyDilated cardiomyopathy or DCM is a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently. The decreased heart function can affect the lungs, liver, and other body systems....
(DCM) – most common form, and one of the leading indications for heart transplantationHeart transplantationA heart transplant, or a cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. As of 2007 the most common procedure was to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the...
. In DCM the heart (especially the left ventricleLeft ventricleThe left ventricle is one of four chambers in the human heart. It receives oxygenated blood from the left atrium via the mitral valve, and pumps it into the aorta via the aortic valve.-Shape:...
) is enlarged and the pumping function is diminished. - Hypertrophic cardiomyopathyHypertrophic cardiomyopathyHypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease of the myocardium in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied without any obvious cause...
(HCM or HOCM) – genetic disorderGenetic disorderA genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth. Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions....
caused by various mutationMutationIn molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
s in genes encoding sarcomericSarcomereA sarcomere is the basic unit of a muscle. Muscles are composed of tubular muscle cells . Muscle cells are composed of tubular myofibrils. Myofibrils are composed of repeating sections of sarcomeres, which appear under the microscope as dark and light bands...
proteins. In HCM the heart muscle is thickened, which can obstruct blood flow and prevent the heart from functioning properly. - Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) – arises from an electrical disturbance of the heart in which heart muscle is replaced by fibrous scar tissue. The right ventricleRight ventricleThe right ventricle is one of four chambers in the human heart. It receives deoxygenated blood from the right atrium via the tricuspid valve, and pumps it into the pulmonary artery via the pulmonary valve and pulmonary trunk....
is generally most affected. - Restrictive cardiomyopathyRestrictive cardiomyopathyRestrictive cardiomyopathy is a form of cardiomyopathy in which the walls are rigid, and the heart is restricted from stretching and filling with blood properly....
(RCM) – least common cardiomyopathy. The walls of the ventricles are stiff, but may not be thickened, and resist the normal filling of the heart with blood. - Noncompaction CardiomyopathyNoncompaction cardiomyopathyNon-compaction cardiomyopathy , also called spongiform cardiomyopathy, is a rare congenital cardiomyopathy that affects both children and adults. It results from the failure of myocardial development during embryogenesis....
– the left ventricle wall has failed to properly grow from birth and such has a spongy appearance when viewed during an echocardiogram.
- Dilated cardiomyopathy
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is any of a number of specific diseases that affect the heart itself and/or the blood vessel system, especially the veins and arteries leading to and from the heart. Research on disease dimorphism suggests that women who suffer with cardiovascular disease usually suffer from forms that affect the blood vessels while men usually suffer from forms that affect the heart muscle itself. Known or associated causes of cardiovascular disease include diabetes mellitusDiabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
, hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
, hyperhomocysteinemia
Hyperhomocysteinemia
Hyperhomocysteinemia or hyperhomocysteinaemia is a medical condition characterized by an abnormally large level of homocysteine in the blood....
and hypercholesterolemia
Hypercholesterolemia
Hypercholesterolemia is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is not a disease but a metabolic derangement that can be caused by many diseases, notably cardiovascular disease...
.
Types of cardiovascular disease include:
- AtherosclerosisAtherosclerosisAtherosclerosis is a condition in which an artery wall thickens as a result of the accumulation of fatty materials such as cholesterol...
Ischaemic heart disease
- Ischaemic heart diseaseIschaemic heart diseaseIschaemic or ischemic heart disease , or myocardial ischaemia, is a disease characterized by ischaemia of the heart muscle, usually due to coronary artery disease...
– another disease of the heart itself, characterized by reduced blood supply to the cardiac muscles i.e. myocardium.
Heart failure
Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure (or CHF), and congestive cardiac failure (CCF), is a condition that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heartHeart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
throughout the body. Therefore leading to the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
and body's failure.
- Cor pulmonaleCor pulmonaleCor pulmonale or pulmonary heart disease is enlargement of the right ventricle of the heart as a response to increased resistance or high blood pressure in the lungs ....
, a failure of the right side of the heart.
Hypertensive heart disease
Hypertensive heart disease is heart disease caused by high blood pressure, especially localised high blood pressure. Conditions that can be caused by hypertensive heart disease include:- Left ventricular hypertrophyLeft ventricular hypertrophyLeft ventricular hypertrophy is the thickening of the myocardium of the left ventricle of the heart.-Causes:While ventricular hypertrophy occurs naturally as a reaction to aerobic exercise and strength training, it is most frequently referred to as a pathological reaction to cardiovascular...
- Coronary heart diseaseCoronary heart diseaseCoronary artery disease is the end result of the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the coronary arteries that supply the myocardium with oxygen and nutrients. It is sometimes also called coronary heart disease...
- (Congestive) heart failure
- Hypertensive cardiomyopathy
- Cardiac arrhythmias
Inflammatory heart disease
Inflammatory heart disease involves inflammation of the heart muscle and/or the tissue surrounding it.- EndocarditisEndocarditisEndocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. It usually involves the heart valves . Other structures that may be involved include the interventricular septum, the chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium, or even on intracardiac devices...
– inflammationInflammationInflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
of the inner layer of the heartHeartThe heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
, the endocardiumEndocardiumThe endocardium is the innermost layer of tissue that lines the chambers of the heart. Its cells are embryologically and biologically similar to the endothelial cells that line blood vessels....
. The most common structures involved are the heart valveHeart valveA heart valve normally allows blood flow in only one direction through the heart. The four valves commonly represented in a mammalian heart determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart...
s. - InflammatoryInflammationInflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
cardiomegalyCardiomegalyCardiomegaly is a medical condition wherein the heart is enlarged. It is generally categorized in the following manner:* Cardiomegaly due to dilation* Cardiomegaly due to ventricular hypertrophy** Left ventricular hypertrophy... - MyocarditisMyocarditisMyocarditis is inflammation of heart muscle . It resembles a heart attack but coronary arteries are not blocked.Myocarditis is most often due to infection by common viruses, such as parvovirus B19, less commonly non-viral pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi or Trypanosoma cruzi, or as a...
– inflammationInflammationInflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
of the myocardium, the muscular part of the heart.
Valvular heart disease
Valvular heart disease is disease process that affects one or more valvesHeart valve
A heart valve normally allows blood flow in only one direction through the heart. The four valves commonly represented in a mammalian heart determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart...
of the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
. There are four major heart valve which may be affected by valvular heart disease, including the tricuspid
Tricuspid valve
The tricuspid valve, or right atrioventricular valve, is on the right dorsal side of the mammalian heart, between the right atrium and the right ventricle. The normal tricuspid valve usually has three leaflets and three papillary muscles. They are connected to the papillary muscles by the chordae...
and aortic valve
Aortic valve
The aortic valve is one of the valves of the heart. It is normally tricuspid , although in 1% of the population it is found to be congenitally bicuspid . It lies between the left ventricle and the aorta....
s in the right side of the heart, as well as the mitral
Mitral valve
The mitral valve is a dual-flap valve in the heart that lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle...
and aortic valve
Aortic valve
The aortic valve is one of the valves of the heart. It is normally tricuspid , although in 1% of the population it is found to be congenitally bicuspid . It lies between the left ventricle and the aorta....
s in the left side of the heart.
See also
- AneurysmAneurysmAn aneurysm or aneurism is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. Aneurysms can commonly occur in arteries at the base of the brain and an aortic aneurysm occurs in the main artery carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart...
- Aortic aneurysmAortic aneurysmAn aortic aneurysm is a general term for any swelling of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal, usually representing an underlying weakness in the wall of the aorta at that location...
- Aortic aneurysm
- British Heart FoundationBritish Heart FoundationThe British Heart Foundation is a charity organisation in Britain that funds research, education, care and awareness campaigns aimed to prevent heart diseases in humans.-Foundation:...
- Cardiac psychologyCardiac psychologyCardiac psychology is a specialization of health psychology that focuses on the primary and secondary prevention of heart disease by incorporating strategies to address the emotional and behavioral barriers to lifestyle changes , and that seeks to enhance recovery in cardiac patients by means of...
- Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN)Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN)Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network is a network of physicians, scientists, and support staff dedicated to studying stem cell therapy for treating heart disease. The CCTRN is funded by the National Institutes of Health and includes expert researchers with experience in cardiovascular...
- Diet and heart disease
- Endothelium-derived relaxing factorEndothelium-derived relaxing factorEndothelium-derived relaxing factor is produced and released by the endothelium to promote smooth muscle relaxation. The best-characterized is nitric oxide . Some sources equate EDRF and nitric oxide....
- High blood pressure (Hypertension)HypertensionHypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
- National Wear Red Day
- PericarditisPericarditisPericarditis is an inflammation of the pericardium . A characteristic chest pain is often present.The causes of pericarditis are varied, including viral infections of the pericardium, idiopathic causes, uremic pericarditis, bacterial infections of the precardium Pericarditis is an inflammation of...
- ThrombosisThrombosisThrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...
External links
- VIDEO - Heart Disease in the Female Population: Prevalence, Presentation and Pathophysiology, Mary Zasadil, MD, speaks at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (2007)
- Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada – Information Resource on Heart Disease