Browsing: Heart

heart

The page provides quick access to a list of common heart diseases, syndromes, health conditions, and other topics of health importance about your heart. The list is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to respective diseases sections that serve as a comprehensive and ultimate guide about the disease or health condition.

Our heart is the most sophisticated working muscle in the body. A heart beats about 100,000 times in a day. It continuously supplies oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. The heart also pumps blood to expel waste products such as carbon dioxide to the lungs, which has to be eliminated from our body.

Proper heart function is highly essential to support life. There are many types of heart diseases that can occur if the heart does not function properly or if any other organ, influencing the heart, does not function efficiently. Most heart diseases are lifelong conditions, and if experienced once, they can create problems throughout your life and sometimes can be a cause of death.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia. In the US, one in every four deaths occurs due to a heart disease.

Some of the common heart diseases and heart conditions are coronary heart disease, enlarged heart, heart attack, irregular heart rhythm, tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, congenital heart diseases, heart attack and hypertension. In the United States, the most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD).


General Overview of Arrhythmia

An arrhythmia is a problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat. It means that your heart beats too quickly, too slowly, or with an irregular pattern. When your heart beats too fast, it is called tachycardia. When the heart beats too slowly, it is called bradycardia.

Peripheral Vascular Disease and Erectile Dysfunction

Both erectile dysfunction (ED) and peripheral vascular disease (ED) are two different conditions. Erectile dysfunction is found in men making them unable to get and maintain an erection firm enough for sexual intercourse. Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) on the other hand is a circulatory problem in which the arteries become narrow and therefore reduce the flow of blood to lower limbs.

Understanding Your ECG for Pericarditis

Pericarditis can be diagnosed through ECG. It is a painless and non-invasive test with quick results. You will be asked to lay flat on a table and chest raised a little. The patient is asked to relax for a few minutes during an ECG procedure so that the electrodes can be placed properly to give reliable results.

Malignant Pericardial Effusion

Malignant pericardial effusion is a serious manifestation in advanced cancers like lung cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and hematological melagnancies such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It is characterized by cancers which cause extra fluid or blood to collect inside the pericardium.

Fetal VSD Ultrasound

Detection of fetal VSD is done by cardiac ultrasound performed between 18 and 22 weeks of pregnancy. Sound waves (ultrasound) are used in this test to produce a moving image of the heart. The test helps doctors to see abnormalities in a baby’s blood flow and heartbeat.