Heart Disease And Cardiovascular Disease

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.).

Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are a growing problem around the world today. Not only do diseases such as diabetes and heart disease affect individuals and their lifestyles, they also affect the economy, politics, education and the professional work environment. 20-26% of individuals in the United States live with heart disease, and obesity and high blood pressure compose the greatest factors for developing this disease [20]. Studies have shown a direct correlation between the amount of sedentary time and cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk, regardless of baseline measurements [20]. Thus, increase in physical activity will decrease cardiometabolic risk factors [8]. Several studies indicate a positive correlation between physical activity and decreased cardiometabolic risk markers [2,4,11,16]. However, we now know that an individual who is getting the recommended physical activity per day can still have a large amount of sedentary time.

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.

Radionuclide testing indicates how strongly the heart pumps and it shows the flow of blood in the heart. There is a small amount of

Because Congestive Heart Failure has many causes, doctors need to find the underlying cause of the heart failure. So the doctors have to find out how and why the heart is malfunctioning before they can make a diagnosis. They do this by your medical/family history, physical examination, and a series of test. Some of the tests used to discover underlying cause are blood tests to evaluate the function of organs in the body, BNP blood test, X-ray, electrocardiogram (EKG), echocardiogram (ECG), stress test, cardiac catherization, radionuclide ventriculography, or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

An echocardiogram and numerous blood test may also be used to identify congestive heart failure.

7.ECG: To see the evidence of ischemic changes, cardiomegaly suggestive of heart failure or evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy.

A physical examination, specifically auscultation of the heart, as well as an electrocardiogram and echocardiogram are used to assess the heart fully. Upon physical

The doctor, cardiologist, and other medical professionals will be looking for certain things to determine if a person has heart failure; for example, a third heart beat (besides the usual “lub” “dub”). Heart failure is diagnosed by certain symptoms along with certain medical tests (Krum, 2009). Some medical tests conducted by various kinds of doctors are the following: Electrocardiograms, Echocardiography, and MRIs. An electrocardiogram is a machine that displays a person’s heartbeat to assess electrical and muscular purposes of the heart. Electrocardiograms are helpful because it can rule out a certain type of heart failure (Krum, 2009). Echocardiography uses ultrasound technology to examine the heart. This test can help with the diagnosis of heart failure because it can give the medical professional information about the left ventricle. An MRI is a medical exam to determine if someone has heart failure because it gives an evaluation of the

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through the heart to meet the body’s need for blood and oxygen. Coronary artery disease is a form of heart disease that effects the chambers of the heart. There are four chambers in the heart. The upper chambers consist of a right and a left atrium and the lower chamber consists of the right and left ventricles. The flow of oxygen rich blood travels from the lungs to the left atrium and into the left ventricle where it is pumped into the rest of the body. When the heart functions properly, all four chambers beat and pump blood effectively in an organized way. The Virtual Medical Centre (Centre, 2008) newsletter states that "Management,

A cardiologist usually begins with the noninvasive testing to see if the patient has CAD. The echocardiogram (echo) test is used when a patient may have chest pain, a previous heart attack, heart murmur, or a congenital heart defect (AHA, 2000). The echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the cardiac muscle. An echo is a test that uses a transducer to pick up sound waves which vibrate throughout the heart (Staff, 2011). The vibrations from the heart are accumulated to create a picture of the heart functioning (Staff, 2011).

A cardiac ultrasound is an increasingly popular test option for doctors to rely on. This is because of its effectiveness, as well as its inexpensiveness and availability. There are no portable units available, which means a cardiac ultrasound can be performed anywhere, from the arctic to the sports field and even in space (yes, seriously).

The other way of diagnostic testing is usually 24 hour monitoring using a form of tape recorder called a Holter monitor, which can be used to record the ECG constantly during a 24-hour period. If these symptoms occur during

The electrocardiogram (EKG) is a simple test that measures the heart's electrical activity (Donahue p. 35). The most widely used screening test is the exercise EKG, or stress test.

An echocardiography which sound waves are used to provide moving image of the heart. This gives a detailed picture of the size, shape, chambers and valves work as well as an image notes the damage done to the heart muscle which can clarify what the patient is experiencing. Doppler ultrasounds uses sound waves measuring speed and direction of blood flow of heart and lungs.