The Heart And The Liver Essay

As the Directors at the Sharp Rees Medical Facility, we will be talking about the liver. The liver is a very important organ in the human body as it does not just perform one function but is involved in multiple tasks. Some interesting facts about the liver; it weighs under five pounds, it has a shape like a half football and everyone is born with one. Just like most other disease or disorder, if the liver has not been taken care of properly there are many negative outcomes that can affect and destroy the liver. There are many complications when the liver is abused or damage for example cancer, hemochromatosis, gallbladder or

Cirrhosis has many causes, although the most common ones are alcoholism and chronic viral hepatitis B, and C. Cirrhosis can develop as a

* Edema: abnormal accumulation of fluid (aka swelling). This is important for cirrhosis because when the tissue starts turning into scar tissue, the kidneys retain more salt. This increase in salt and water causes the visualized swelling. As time progresses, this swelling can affect abdomen area of the body, making edema secondary to hepatocellular failure since it is the tissue cell morphing that causes edema to manifest.

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).

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition caused by the weakening of the heart and the cardiovascular system. It develops when the heart is not able to pump enough blood. Some causes of CHF would include, narrowed arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle – coronary artery disease, past heart attack, or myocardial infarction, with scar tissue that interferes with the heart muscle’s normal work, high blood pressure, heart valve disease, primary disease of the heart muscle itself, called cardiomyopathy.

This case study is about Abdul Chidiac, a 51 year old male, married with 4 children. He had a medical history of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and cirrhosis with two admissions in the last six months. He is a smoker and drinks beer, 5-6 bottles per day. As Carithers & McClain (2010) explained the patient’s medical history is another indicator of the risk for cirrhosis; the progression to cirrhosis is adaptable and may take time over weeks or many years. Cirrhosis is a liver disease characterized by permanent scarring of the

"Congestive Heart Failure is the Inability of the heart to maintain the demands of pumping blood with normal efficiency to other organs, such as the brain, liver, and kidneys" (Congestive heart failure, 2008). Without the heart carrying out its functions, all the organs in the body would be deprived of sufficient blood to do its work, the kidney will no longer filter its blood leading to fluid accumulation in areas such as the lungs, liver, legs, and surrounding eye, when this happens, it is called congestive heart failure. "Cardiomyopathy is a situation where there are changes in the heart muscle which prevent part or all the heart from contracting normally" ("Cardiomyopathy,” 2013). This situation could be acquired or inherited problem of the heart muscles resulting in thickness or expansion of the heart making it difficult to pump required blood that the body needed. In this paper, the writer would have the opportunity to discuss the best approach to care that Mr. P battling cardiomyopathy and CHF deserve, the treatment and education he needed that would help him, the method of education, and the teaching care plan.

He underwent multiple cardiac related procedures, including a cardiac catheterization and stent placement. After discharge, he developed a fast heart rhythm (180-190 beats per minute -ventricular tachycardia) and other serious heart problems (cardiomegaly, valve regurgitation, and others) that required a cardiac defibrillator implant. He fatigued easily; his condition deteriorated and was hospitalized once more. The diagnoses listed included myocardial infarction (heart attack), acute on chronic respiratory failure, congestive heart failure (CHF), kidney failure, liver failure, hypertension, and anemia. His blood tests were abnormal.

Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a functional renal impairment occurring in patients with advanced acute or chronic liver disease. It develops as a result of severe renal hypoperfusion secondary to splanchnic arterial vasodilatation. Arterial vasodilatation leads to a decrease in the effective blood volume, thus multiple activations of vasoactive systems; renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system [RAAS], antidiuretic hormone [ADH] release, and stimulation of sympathetic nervous system & consequently, renal vasoconstriction [1].

In contrast to LV failure, in RV heart failure, the most common symptoms are ankle swelling and fatigue, visible elevation of the jugular venous pressure. Sometimes patients feel a sensation of fullness in the abdomen. Hepatic congestion can cause right upper quadrant abdominal discomfort, stomach and intestinal congestion. In severe cases, peripheral edema can extend to the thighs or even the sacrum, scrotum and occasionally even higher

Pamela B., a 52-year-old female, presented to the emergency department complaining of abdominal distention that worsened over a two week period. She noted black, tarry stools several days after the onset of her abdominal distention, and decided to seek medical attention after experiencing three large incidences of frank hematemesis, vomiting consisting of bright red blood. She has a past medical history of cirrhosis of the liver, which is the deposition of connective tissue, collagen fibers, in the liver, resulting in the formation of nodules. These nodules can alter blood flow, and liver function (1). Additionally, she has hepatitis C, a viral infection most commonly associated with the liver, that is transmissible by blood (1). Her

The term cirrhotic cardiomyopathy was initially presented more than 3 decades ago, and is defined as chronic cardiac dysfunction in cirrhotic patients in absence of previous cardiac disease, regardless the etiology of cirrhosis. Particular diagnostic criteria for CCM have recently been defined by an international expert consensus committee that involve systolic and/or diastolic dysfunction, chronotropic incompetence, and electrophysiological abnormalities. Overt heart failure is not a

The injuries found in the transplant liver are due either to pre-existing conditions from the marginal and cardiac arrest donors, or from the ischemic conditions that occur in transplant. Among various transplant recipient groups, the rate of liver graft rejection (and consequently severe complications or death) is significantly higher when the donor liver has severe

Cardiac dysfunction resulting from cirrhosis has been the aim of multiple studies. Results demonstrated that liver cirrhosis causes impaired systolic or diastolic function, electrophysiological abnormalities, and chronotropic incompetence. Although some diastolic alterations may precede the systolic disturbances, both forms of dysfunction may develop at the same time in cirrhotic patients.

In our world organisms occupy a sliding scale of complexity. On one hand we have the single cell organisms, where all necessary functions for their life are carried out within that one cell. At the other extreme we have extremely complex multicellular organisms, of which humans are perhaps the cardinal member. Obviously, with increased capacity comes increased abilities. Complex organisms are able to manipulate their environment to a greater extent then their simpler cousins. While this has a lot of advantages, it also presents interesting biological problems. With the increased complexity multicellular organisms must have systems to deliver nutrients, signaling molecules, and biochemical building blocks to every cell. In