My watch list
my.bionity.com  
Login  

Heart disease



Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases which affect the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States[1][2], England, and Wales[3], killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone[4].

Contents

Types of heart disease

Cardiomyopathy

Main article: Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy literally means "heart muscle disease" (Myo= muscle, pathy= disease) It is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium (i.e., the actual heart muscle) for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac death.

Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is any of a number of specific diseases that affect the heart itself and/or the blood vessel system, especially the veins and arteries leading to and from the heart. Research on disease dimorphism suggests that women who suffer with cardiovascular disease usually suffer from forms that affect the blood vessels while men usually suffer from forms that affect the heart muscle itself. Known or associated causes of cardiovascular disease include diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperhomocysteinemia and hypercholesterolemia.

Types of cardiovascular disease include:

Coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease is a disease of the heart caused by the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium. Angina pectoris and myocardial infarction (heart attack) are symptoms of and conditions caused by coronary heart disease.

  • Ischaemic heart disease - another disease of the heart itself, characterized by reduced blood supply to the organ.

Heart failure

Main article: Heart failure

Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure (or CHF), and congestive cardiac failure (CCF), is a condition that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heart to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body.

Hypertensive heart disease

Main article: Hypertensive heart disease

Hypertensive heart disease, heart disease caused by high blood pressure, especially localised high blood pressure. Conditions that can be caused by hypertensive heart disease include:

Inflammatory heart disease

Inflammatory heart disease involves inflammation of the heart muscle and/or the tissue surrounding it.

Valvular heart disease

Main article: Valvular heart disease

Valvular heart disease is any disease process involving one or more valves of the heart. The valves in the right side of the heart are the tricuspid valve and the pulmonic valve. The valves in the left side of the heart are the mitral valve and the aortic valve.

See also

References

  1. ^ Division of Vital Statistics; Arialdi M. Miniño, M.P.H., Melonie P. Heron, Ph.D., Sherry L. Murphy, B.S., Kenneth D. Kochanek, M.A. (2007-08-21). "Deaths: Final data for 2004" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports 55 (19): 7. United States: Center for Disease Control. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
  2. ^ White House News, , . Retrieved on 2007-07-16
  3. ^ National Statistics Press Release 25th May 2006
  4. ^ Hitti, Miranda. "Heart Disease Kills Every 34 Seconds in U.S.", Fox News - WebMD, 2004-12-07. Retrieved on 2007-12-30. 
Find more information on Heart disease by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity
  • VIDEO - Heart Disease in the Female Population: Prevalence, Presentation and Pathophysiology, Mary Zasadil, MD, speaks at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (2007)
  • Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada - Information Resource on Heart Disease
  • British Heart Foundation
  • VIDEO - What is Heart Disease?
  This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Heart_disease". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE