Diseases of the cardiovascular system are increasingly common among patients of different age categories. The reasons for this lie in the unsatisfactory state of the external environment, in the conduct of an incorrect lifestyle, in a hereditary predisposition. One of the most common factors that affect mortality is myocardial infarction. Also, people suffer from myocarditis, cardiac myocardial hypertrophy, which is associated with abnormal functioning of the organ or the development of pathological processes in it.
Myocardium is
Myocardium is the thickest and functionally powerful part of the heart wall. It forms its cardiac striated muscle tissue. The organ consists of interconnected insertion discs of cardiomyocytes. As a result of their association in complexes or muscle fibers, a narrow-braided network is formed, which ensures rhythmic contraction of the ventricles and atria. The myocardium of the left ventricle has the greatest thickness, the atria is the smallest. The atrial myocardium consists of the deep and superficial layers of the muscles. Ventricular myocardium - from the internal, secondary and external.
The muscle fibers of the ventricles and atria begin in the fibrous rings that separate the atria from the ventricles. They are located around the left and right atrio-gastric openings, forming the skeleton of the heart (pulmonary trunk, rings around the aortic openings, fibrous triangles).
Myocardial disease
Myocardial diseases or myocarditis occur as a result of damage to the heart muscle by infections, protozoal or parasitic infestations, physical or chemical influences, in connection with autoimmune and allergic diseases. The main factors involved in the development of diseases are allergies and infections. Myocardium is an organ in which inflammatory processes can occur as a complication of influenza, tonsillitis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and otitis media.
Toxins, viruses, and microbes damage cardiomyocytes and cause humoral and cellular immune responses, which is accompanied by the appearance of foci of necrosis, increased hypoxia, swelling of tissues, and increased vascular permeability. Ignoring the process can lead to its transition to a chronic form. Myocarditis is a group of diseases with different symptoms, pathogenesis and etiology. They are divided into immune and infectious. Idiopathic myocarditis is also isolated, in which the myocardium is severely affected. This disease is recognized as an extreme variant of infectious-allergic myocarditis.
Causes of myocarditis
Bacteria, acute viral infections (sepsis, pneumonia, scarlet fever, diphtheria and chicken pox, rubella and measles, flu) can cause the development of the disease. The frequency of myocarditis during viral epidemics increases dramatically. The cause of the pathology can be not one infection, but a greater number of them, while one can be the direct cause of muscle damage, and the second can be a condition.
Immune system disorders and poisoning can also trigger the development of myocarditis. The development of the disease is facilitated by physical activity and overvoltage.
Myocarditis symptoms
With infectious-toxic and viral myocarditis, symptoms appear in connection with severe intoxication. Symptoms of infectious-allergic myocarditis occurs due to an exacerbation of a chronic disease. In case of poisoning (medication and serum myocarditis), it manifests itself a day after taking medication or administering serum. In some cases, the presence of pathology can only be detected using an ECG, since clinical manifestations are not expressed.
Myocardial impairment is accompanied by general symptoms, the severity and nature of which depends on the type of myocarditis. Most often, patients complain of shortness of breath, general weakness, fatigue, pain in the heart. The disease can be accompanied by arrhythmia, tachycardia, progression of heart failure, the development of hydrothorax and ascites, enlarged liver, peripheral edema, pulmonary edema, swelling of the cervical veins. The course of myocarditis can be acute, subacute, chronic, recurrent and progressive.
Types of myocarditis
Myocarditis is distinguished based on clinical signs, consequences, and etiology.
Bacterial myocarditis affects the interventricular septum and valve rings. Caused by diphtheria, Enterococcus sticks and Staphylococcus aureus. Although the disease is rare, it is very difficult and often leads to the death of the patient as a result of worsening contractility of the heart, its flabbiness and expansion. You can improve the condition of the patient with antibiotics and antitoxins.
The simplest organisms - trypanosomes - cause the development of extensive myocarditis against the background of Chagas disease. Pathology is characterized by a chronic course with arrhythmia and heart failure. Toxoplasma provokes the occurrence of myocarditis in patients with weakened immunity. With giant cell myocarditis, giant cells are found that affect the myocardium. This causes heart failure, which progresses rapidly and ends in death. In addition, radiation myocarditis and Lim disease are distinguished.
Ventricular myocardial hypertrophy
Hypertrophy leads to an increase in the mass of the heart muscle. The condition is quite dangerous and can be fatal. This is a reaction of the body to an increase in blood pressure. Modern methods of treatment can prevent complications and improve the well-being of the patient.
Left ventricular myocardial hypertrophy is diagnosed with a physical examination. A person can live for years with this disease, without even knowing about its presence. Symptoms of pathology are somewhat reminiscent of angina pectoris. A person experiences pain in the heart, a malfunction of the heart rhythm, shortness of breath during physical actions, and fainting can occur. Left ventricular myocardial hypertrophy can cause severe complications, up to death. Timely diagnosis and adequate treatment can return a person to a familiar lifestyle.
Causes of ventricular myocardial hypertrophy
Hypertrophy means that the ventricular myocardium is enlarged, which leads to excessive stress on the heart. As a result, heart productivity is accelerating. An increase in the myocardium in volume and the loss of its elastic properties occurs as a result of the failure of the ventricles to throw blood into the aorta in a constantly elevated rhythm. Among the factors that cause the development of hypertrophy: acquired and congenital heart defects, excessive exercise, overweight, hypertension, impaired blood supply to the body. Change in the ventricular myocardium may be genetically determined.
The disease affects people of different ages, but most often children and newborns fall into the risk zone. The pathology can cause increased heart function while filling up the lack of nutrition of organs. Hypertrophy caused by increased pressure in the pulmonary artery is accompanied by fainting, shortness of breath, dizziness.
Myocardial infarction: causes
Myocardial infarction is today considered one of the most common causes of death from diseases of the cardiovascular system. There is a list of reasons that may be involved in the occurrence of a heart attack, the main of which is obstruction of the coronary artery. The development of the disease is facilitated by: impaired fat metabolism, obesity, diabetes mellitus, bad habits, vasospasm, physical exertion, changes in blood coagulation, hypertension, atherosclerosis, genetic predisposition.
Symptoms of myocardial infarction
Myocardial signs are very difficult to recognize, since they have many similarities with angina pectoris. But still, the pain during a heart attack lasts a long time and does not subside even at rest and after taking vasodilators. Together with severe pain, a feeling of unreasonable fear, anxiety. The patient is disturbed by symptoms such as dizziness, severe general weakness, vomiting and nausea, and excessive sweating. Due to interruptions in the work of the heart, difficulty breathing is observed, the rhythm of the contractions of the heart is disturbed, and sudden loss of consciousness may occur. If the patient does not receive timely assistance with myocardial infarction, this can fatally end.
In some cases, a heart attack occurs without pain in the heart, mainly in patients with diabetes. Weaker pain in women is accompanied by shortness of breath, vomiting, nausea, and pain in the stomach.
Urgent Care
Help with myocardial infarction should be immediate and most effective, because a person’s life depends on it. First, the patient should help himself a little: calm down, take a position in which physical stress is minimal, take an analgesic (Baralgin, Analgin preparations), a tablet of nitroglycerin, a tablet of aspirin (if there are no allergic reactions, gastritis and peptic ulcers).
Relatives should immediately call a cardiological team, measure the patient’s blood pressure, if possible, give a sedative (drops of motherwort, hawthorn, valerian). A patient with myocardial infarction should be in a lying or sitting position. When getting up from the bed, severe dizziness may appear. This is the result of lowering the pressure with Nitroglycerin.
Myocardial Infarction Prevention
To avoid a heart attack, it is necessary to control your health and eliminate any problems with it in time. Prevention of the disease can be primary (prevention of occurrence) and secondary (prevention of recurrence in those who have already suffered). Preventive measures are important not only for patients with heart problems, but also for completely healthy people. They are aimed at eliminating factors that can lead to the development of cardiovascular catastrophes.
The first thing a person should do is to control body weight, because overweight is the basis for the occurrence of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension. The patient is advised to lead an active lifestyle with exercise, walking in the fresh air and giving up bad habits. It is necessary to control the level of cholesterol and blood sugar. Need to review your menu. Fatty dishes, sweets should be replaced with cereals, light salads, vegetables and fruits.