Cardiovascular Diseases and Infection/Inflammation

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease or heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in America. Cardiovascular disease refers to a disease of the heart and/or blood vessels. It is also known as heart disease. The term cardiovascular disease covers many conditions and is extremely dangerous. Atherosclerosis is one of the major conditions that falls under the cardiovascular disease category. Atherosclerosis is a condition that develops when plaque, made from various substances that circulate in your blood, builds up on the walls of the arteries. The buildup narrows the arteries and makes it difficult for blood to flow through. The major risks of atherosclerosis are heart attack or stroke (American Heart Association, n.d.).

Over the past few years cardiovascular diseases have become the number one global cause of death. These diseases were first discovered 3,500 years ago with the Egyptians, and ever since then the causes have been pretty much the same. Although there are things that can be done to either increase or decrease the chances of getting heart disease. “Heart diseases describe a range of conditions that affect the heart” (Sheen 1). It can range from a myocardial infarction- a heart attack-, to a cerebral vascular disease, which is a disease of the blood vessels. Either way these diseases can impact the life of people in many negative aspects. Cardiovascular diseases have become the number one cause in global death due to the bad habits, diets, stress, and natural and chemical causes that the global population has.

Immune chemicals cause widespread inflammation, leading to blood clots and reduced blood flow 2• 1

According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death globally claiming 17 million lives a year, more deaths than all cancer combined (Chiu and Radisic, 2013). Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a preponderance of health problems and its impact is expected to grow further as the population ages. In the UK, NHS spends about £7.74 billion as the expenditure to deal with cardiovascular diseases (Barton et al., 2011). Cardiovascular disease in the form of myocardial infarction has become the principle cause of death in developed countries, accounting for nearly 40% of all deaths (http://www.bhf.org.uk/). Congenital heart defects, which occur in nearly 14 of every 1000 new-born children, is another tragic fact that baffles medical industry (http://www.heart.org/). About 61 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) live with cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease, congenital cardiovascular defects, and congestive heart failure.

Cardiovascular disease has reportedly been the number one disease killer for men and women in the United States of America. Every one out of four deaths is caused by heart disease in the United States alone (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention). Heart disease refers to the different types of conditions and symptoms that can affect the one’s heart and its functions to the body (Mayo Clinic). Cardiovascular/Heart disease has many causes and conditions, prevention methods and symptoms, and treatment options.

the two pathways and it requires that all factors are present within the blood for clotting

A non-communicable disease is where the disease cannot be transmitted from person to person. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is one of the most common and worst non-communicable diseases and has been around for a long time and killed many people. This disease occurs when the blood vessels contributing to the heart muscle stop, stopping the heart from getting oxygen. CHD has many impacts on individual, economic, and political.

Infective endocarditis is the inflammation of the damaged parts of the heart due to an infection usually from elsewhere in the body. In this disease the endocardium (the inner lining of the heart) is inflamed and can lead to damaged heart valves and to other life-threatening complications. William Osler was the first one to recognize this disease and gave a name to it in 1885 in his Gulstonian lectures.

One source of great mortality and morbidity in Europe and North America is the cardiovascular disease, Atherosclerosis. It is recognized as a chronic inflammatory disease of the intermediate and large arteries characterized by the thickening of the arterial wall and is the primary cause of coronary and cerebrovascular heart disease (Wilson, 2005). It accounts for 4.35 million deaths in Europe and 35% death in the UK each year. Mortality rate are generally higher in men than pre-menopausal woman. Past the menopause, a woman’s risk is similar to a man’s (George and Johnston, 2010). Clinical trials have confirmed that lipid accumulation, endothelial dysfunction, cell proliferation, inflammation matrix alteration and foam cell formation are

Chlamydia Pneumoniae comes from a distinct Chlamydia species. This type of infection is usually associated with atherosclerotic vascular disease mainly. It is an obligate intracellular bacterium that will infect humans and is the major leading cause of pneumonia. The bacteria, for it to reproduce, must infect other cells which is what makes it an obligate intracellular pathogen. C. Pneumoniae is a gram negative bacterium which will undergo several transitions during its life cycles. This bacterium is an elementary body (EB) meaning that it is resistant to environmental stresses and can survive outside its host for a long amount of time but it’s not a biologically active pathogen. The way this EB works is that, it will travel from the lung of an infected person to the lungs of the uninfected person in small droplets and will then become responsible for the infection. The EB then goes through the process of phagocytosis and becomes the reticulate body (RB); it then can start its replication process within the endosome. It then will convert itself back to EB and infect the cells in the lungs of the host killing the host cell in the process. This infections life cycle is split up between the EB, which can infect new hosts but it’s not able to replicate, and the RB, which is replicable but it is not able to infect other cells to cause the new

784). The immune system attempts to attack the inflamed area in the artery with special white blood cells and “cells full of fatty nutrients, foam cells, begin to form there, too” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 43). The white blood cells are unable to properly fight the affected area, and in turn, end up adding more substance to the build up. As this process continues, the affected area becomes inflamed and physically hardens. This produces a blockage in the artery and reduces blood flow, while also causing an increase in blood pressure. At this point of the atherosclerosis build up, many people, especially women, experience angina.

The leading cause of death for people in the United States is heart disease. Heart failure is just one of the many conditions that underlie heart diseases. Being one of the leading causes of death; having the knowledge on how this disease works can help researchers find a cure or new treatments to prevent and/or treat this pathogenesis. Chronic inflammation is a condition that can lead to heart failure. When inflammation is chronic it means that the inflammation is long-term and therefore this condition can lead to other complications, but what causes chronic inflammation? Inflammation is a response to a foreign pathogen in the body, but what if there is no foreign pathogen? An autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system starts to attack the healthy

Before discussing Infective Endocarditis, it’s imperative to understand where the endocardium is along with its function because endocarditis affects this area of the heart. The Endocardium is the innermost layer of heart tissue that lines the cavities and valves of the heart and is composed of loose epithelial and connective tissue. The endocardium regulates contractions of the heart and helps regulate the composition of the blood that feeds the tissues of the heart (Kenney, 2015). Infective Endocarditis, IE, is an infection of the endocardium that generally occurs when bacteria or germs from another part of the body, such as the mouth, spread through the bloodstream and attach to damaged areas in the heart (Endocarditis Definition, 2015). Individuals that have an increased risk of developing Endocarditis include:

Many of the vaso-protective function of endothelium is provide by the Nitric Oxide(NO)20.Endothelium damaged by turbulent or non-laminar blood causes decreased production of NO.Such kind of blood flow also stimulates endothelial cells to produce adhesion molecules, which recruit and bind inflammatory cells. Hypercholesterolemia seems to inactivate the normal function of NO. The net effect is endothelial binding of monocytes and T cells, migration of these cells to the subendothelial space, and initiation of a local vascular inflammatory response. Lipids in the blood, particularly low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), also bind to endothelial cells. 18Firstly LDL is transported across the healthy intima and become trapped in intima of a vessel wall.It undergoes oxidative modification and then oxidized LDL(OxLDL) is formed5.OxLDL is mighty inducer of inflammatory molecules.It adds up to the inflamotory signaling by endothelium that activates chemotactic substances, growth factors that attracts monocytes to vessel wall21Eventually OxLDL transforms monocytes into macrophages which makes the Forms cells, which are the hallmark of atherosclerosis. Oxidized LDL impair the signal transduction between endothelial cell surface receptors and NO production, inhibit NO synthase activity and inactivates NO realese from endothelial cells.22.Once the endothelium is impaired, oxidized LDL is stored in vascular endothelium and by the process of series of mechanism, foam cells are formed and then eventually fatty plaque that occludes the vessel along with the decreased amount of NO which decreases the ability of the vessel to dilate. As the plaque grows arterial wall narrowing and thickening occurs5. This plaque and narrowing of vessel results in decreased blood flow

Coronary artery infection is brought on by the steady development of plaque (made of fat, cholesterol, and different substances) within dividers of the coronary supply routes. These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart. After some time, the plaque stores develop sufficiently huge to limit the arteries inside channels, diminishing blood stream to the heart muscle. On the off chance that the plaque gets to be precarious and breaks, blood coagulation can shape at the crack site and piece blood stream, bringing about a heart