Cardiovascular Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases are referred to the condition in which the blood carried to the heart by the blood vessels are blocked or narrowed leading to chest pain or stroke. The other conditions such as where the heart muscles and valves are damaged leads to improper heart rhythm are also considered as heart diseases. In this assignment, the causes, sign and symptoms of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and congenital heart disease are to be explained. The ways these cardiovascular diseases can be diagnosed and can be effectively treated through different process are to be discussed, and for those pursuing related topics, healthcare dissertation help can provide valuable insights and resources.

Cardiac Disorder

The coronary artery disease is also known as atherosclerosis is the cardiovascular disease in which the coronary arteries that transport oxygenated blood towards the heart are blocked or constricted due to development of deposits of fat and cholesterol on the inner side of the arteries (Lee et al. 2015). The deposition of fatty substances and atheroma formation causes restriction of blood flow to the heart making the heart get starved of oxygen and key nutrients for its proper working which leads individual to develop angina which is chest pain as a result of reduce oxygen supply to the heart (Ahn et al. 2015). The symptoms of coronary heart disease are chest heaviness, tightening, pain and burning sensation along with feeling of dizziness, shortness of breath and sweating (Douglas et al. 2015). The risk factors responsible for atherosclerosis are intake of fatty foods, smoking, presence of high cholesterol, heredity, physical inactivity and others (Lettieri et al. 2015). The congenital heart disease is the heart anomaly in which a certain structure of the heart or the blood vessels leading to the heart is defective from birth (Budts et al. 2016). The possible range of heart defects seen in congenital heart disease includes aortic valve stenosis in which the aortic valve is narrowed that helps in controlling blood flow out from the left ventricle into the aorta to be circulated in the body, Ebstein’s anomaly in which the valve in the right atrium and ventricle in the heart is not properly developed, ventricular septal defects in which there is hole present between the two heart chambers and others (Yoon et al. 2017; Holst et al. 2019; Anderson et al. 2019). The congenital heart diseases are mainly seen in newborn with symptoms such as breathing difficulty, chest pain, feeding issues, delayed growth and others (Stout et al. 2019). The risk factors for developing congenital heart diseases are heredity, intake of alcohol and smoking during pregnancy, diabetes in mother and others (Mussatto et al. 2015).

The congestive heart failure (CHF) is referred to the chronic as well as progressive illness which negatively impacts the power of pumping by the heart muscles. This is the stage in which fluid develops in the heart leading it to perform its pumping actions inappropriately (Benotti et al. 2017). The kinds of CHF are diastolic failure in which the muscles of the left ventricle of the heart is stiffened making it unable to be relaxed leading the heart unable to fill blood to be circulated to the body between beats and systolic heart failure in which the contraction of the left ventricle is stiffened making it unable to pump blood to the circulation (Tang et al. 2015; van Riet et al. 2016). The causes of CHF are hypertension, damaged heart valves, coronary heart diseases and others (Ziaeian and Fonarow, 2016). The symptoms of CHF are swelling of hands and feet, fatigue, increased urination and when it becomes severe chest pain, rapid breathing, shortness of breath and others are experienced (Ziaeian and Fonarow, 2016).

Diagnosis and Treatment of Cardiac Disorder

The coronary artery disease (CAD) is diagnosed through the use of electrocardiogram where electric signals are sent to the heart to determine the functional efficiency of the heart. The echocardiogram is used where ultrasounds are sent to the heart to develop a picture for revealing the reason behind the improper functioning of the heart. The electrocardiogram shows the rate at which the heart is beating by measurement of the heart’s electrical activity (Norum et al. 2015). This allows the physician to determine whether the heart rate is more or less than normal and in case it is above normal then it is detected as coronary artery disorder. The stress test is also used in CAD where the stress on the heart is checked during any physical activity. The heart CT scan is also used for developing image of the heart for detecting any defect. The CT scan shows detailed picture of the heart (Norum et al. 2015; Moss et al. 2017). The treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) include surgeries such as balloon angioplasty in which the blocked arteries are smoothed and widened by using a stent so that the lumen remains open during the procedure and coronary artery bypass graft surgery is the process in which any artery or vein which is healthy is taken from the body to be grafted to the blocked artery for enhancing blood flow to the heart (Byrne et al. 2017; Alexander and Smith, 2016). The medications used for treatment of coronary artery diseases include beta-blockers, calcium-channel blockers and others. For instance, the people with coronary heart are provided nitroglycerin to control chest pain. The beta-blockers work among patients with CAD by blocking the working of epinephrine that in turn slows the heart rate and blood to flow with less force resulting to lower the blood pressure (mayoclionic, 2018). The congenital heart disease can be diagnosed during pregnancy as well as after birth. The disease is usually identified during pregnancy through routine ultrasound check-up that is foetal echocardiography executed around 18-22 weeks of pregnancy. In the process, sounds of high-frequency are sent to the foetus to develop an image of its heart to ensure the heart formed is damaged or not (Quartermain et al. 2015). After birth, the presence of congenital heart disease leads to develop a blue tinge on the baby indicating cyanosis. It immediately leads to the baby's heartbeat to be checked along with their pulse rate to detect the presence of disease. The babies having congenital heart disease are seen to breathe rapidly and have reduced oxygen level as well as increased heart rate which is above 120-160 (Sun et al. 2015). The treatment for congenital heart disease includes the use of medication to avoid the formation of blood clots or controlling the improper heartbeat. The key treatments include use of implantable heart device such as pacemaker attached to the heart through surgery to ensure normally regulated heartbeat, catheter procedure in which a thin tube is inserted in the vein of the leg to guide it to the heart and after its proper positioning the doctor through small tools repairs the defect in the heart. It also includes open-heart surgery where defect is the heart is repaired through opening up of heart through surgical process and correcting the flaws identified in the heart to ensure its proper working (Cecchin, 2017; Sun et al. 2015). The heart transplant is the last nature of treatment executed for this disease where the heart of the individual affected by the disease is replaced with heart from another person (Dimopoulos et al. 2019).

The congestive heart failure (CHF) is mainly diagnosed with two-dimensional as well as Doppler echocardiography for assessing the systolic as well as diastolic performance of the heart. In this nature of diagnosis, the image of the heart is shown and if the size as well as shape of the heart in the test is abnormal then it indicates that the person is suffering from CHF (Masetic and Subasi, 2016). This test shows in a graph by perceiving the electrical impulses at what rate it is beating. The echocardiogram is also used in the diagnosis of CHF where structure and motion of the heart are captured through sound waves to understand if abnormalities have occurred in blood flow or muscle of the heart is damaged (Almahmoud et al. 2015). The MRI in which the pictures of the heart are taken and blood test is also used for diagnosis of CHF. The MRI shows structure of the heart as well as the way blood is flowing through the major vessels in the heart (Oseni et al. 2017). The congestive heart failure is treated with the use of medicines such as ACE inhibitors that acts to broaden the narrowed blood vessels to ensure proper blood flow, beta-blockers that lower blood pressure and control rapid heart rhythm to normal and diuretics for lower the fluid content to avoid storage fluid in the heart (Vaidya et al. 2018; Buakhamsri et al. 2019; Ellison and Felker, 2017). The angioplasty is the surgical process used when medication fails to resolve CHF and in this process, the blocked arteries are opened through surgical method to ensure proper flow from and to the heart (Stumpf et al. 2017). In addition, the heart valve repair surgery can also be executed to ensure proper opening and closing of valves in the heart to ensure proper rhythm (Stone et al. 2018).

Conclusion

The discussion informs that coronary artery disease is damage of the coronary arteries, congenital heart disease is damage to the heart structure and congestive heart failure is negative performance of heart pumping. The use of electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, stress test, MRI and heart CT are usual ways for diagnosis of the diseases. The treatment of congenital heart disease and coronary artery disease is made through the surgical process whereas medications along with surgery are used for the treatment of congestive heart failure.

References

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