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What is a heart defect?
Heart disease is a group of diseases in which there is a change in the structure and disruption of the heart valve. Heart failure includes combined (affecting several valves) and combined (on one valve) defects. Pathologies of this type lead to changes in the circulatory system inside the heart.
Heart defects are acquired, while there are violations of the structure of the heart and blood vessels, their influence is manifested by a violation of the functional ability of the heart and blood circulation. Among the acquired heart defects, the most common is the defeat of the mitral valve and the semilunar valve of the aorta. Valve defects include stenosis, which occurs due to deformation and shortening of the valves and their incomplete closure, which is a consequence of inflammatory cicatricial adhesions.
Congenital malformations are the abnormal development of the heart, a violation in the formation of the main blood vessels during the prenatal period. Various forms of congenital heart defects can be mild and incompatible with life. Among the emerging fetal heart defects, there are most cases of defects in the interventricular and interatrial septa, persistent narrowing of the lumen and malposition of the main vessels.
Causes of heart disease
The cause of congenital heart disease is the abnormal formation of the heart cavities. Also during the period of fetal development, there is a division of the primary common vascular trunk into the aorta and pulmonary artery. When a child is born into the world, he retains intrauterine blood circulation features and develops heart pathologies. It can be a patent ductus arteriosus or an open foramen ovale.
With congenital malformations, there may be an isolated and complex lesion of the heart or blood vessels, intrauterine defects in the valvular apparatus. Rheumatism and rheumatic infective endocarditis are considered the main cause in the development of acquired heart defects. Sometimes the pathology is caused by atherosclerosis, injuries, systemic diseases of the connective tissue. Acquired vices
Heart disease symptoms
There are compensated heart defects, which, as a rule, proceed secretly and decompensated, manifested by shortness of breath, palpitations, fatigue, pain in the heart, and fainting. In mitral insufficiency, the left atrioventricular orifice is not completely closed by the bicuspid valve during left ventricular systole, which causes backflow of blood into the atrium.
With compensated mitral heart disease, the contractility of the myocardium of the left heart is weakened. There is stagnation in the small and large circle of blood circulation. The decompensated form is manifested by edema of the lower extremities, enlargement of the liver, swelling of the veins of the neck occurs. In this period, the development of stagnation in the pulmonary circulation provokes coughing, interruptions and pain in the heart, hemoptysis. Visually, the doctor detects redness and cyanosis of the patient’s skin.
Usually the compensation period passes, without any serious violations. Children suffering from heart disease lag behind in physical development, become infantile, the appearance of a “heart hump” is observed.
Often with heart disease, atrial fibrillation develops, systolic pressure decreases and diastolic pressure rises. Heart disease, in which aortic insufficiency is present, eventually leads to relative coronary insufficiency, patients feel strong tremors and pain in the region of the heart. This is because the blood filling of the coronary arteries worsens at low pressure in the aorta during diastole and myocardial hypertrophy develops.
Symptoms of heart failure can be headaches, throbbing in the head and neck. Patients feel dizzy, they often faint, because there is a violation of the blood supply to the brain. When the contractile activity of the left ventricle is weakened, pallor of the skin is noted, caused by insufficient blood supply to the artery in diastole.
Diagnosis of heart disease
This diagnosis can be established by the pulse, the rhythm on the left and right hand may differ. Diagnosis in patients with suspected heart disease begins with checking their well-being at rest, their exercise tolerance. The causes are clarified with the help of the medical history, complaints of the patient. Apply the method of palpation and examination to detect cyanosis, pulsation of peripheral veins, shortness of breath, edema. The presence of cardiac hypertrophy is determined, heart murmurs and tones are heard.
They check the work of the lungs, determine the size of the liver. Using an ECG, the heart rhythm, type of arrhythmia, blockade and signs of ischemia are established. Phonocardiography is used to record murmurs and heart sounds and determine valvular heart disease. Diagnosis accuracy is also achieved using cardiac radiography, echocardiography, MSCT, or cardiac MRI. Laboratory studies – rheumatoid tests, determination of sugar levels and the presence of cholesterol. Clinical blood and urine tests are required.
Treatment of heart defects
With heart defects, conservative treatment is to prevent complications. Also, all efforts of therapeutic therapy are aimed at preventing relapses of the primary disease, for example, rheumatism, infective endocarditis. Correction of rhythm disturbances and heart failure is mandatory under the supervision of a cardiac surgeon.
Based on the form of heart disease, treatment is prescribed.
Patients are encouraged to engage in those types of work that are not associated with physical overload. Giving up smoking and alcohol, performing physiotherapy exercises, sanatorium treatment at cardiological resorts are one of the many ways to treat defects of the main human organ.
[Video] Boris Todurov – why are valvular heart defects dangerous and how to recognize them?