Definition Angina
definition angina
Can you clarify the different types of heart problems for me?
For a class I am learning about heart diseases. I can read their definitions in my text book but I am having a difficult time figuring out how they all fit in together and differentiating one from the other. Here are the ones I need to be able to separate and understand: CHF, Angina, ACS, MI, Vavlular Disorders, Cor Pulmonale and CAD.
They’re all running together in my mind, help!
CHF is congestive heart failure. Heart fails in its pumping function as an end result of any major heart disease.
Angina: Chest pain due to reduced blood supply to heart muscle, usually brought on by exertion, when the demand for blood supply is more. The cause is usually a narrowing of the blood vessel supplying that region of the muscle.
ACS: Acute coronary syndrome – sudden decrease in blood supply to a region of heart producing angina.
MI: Myocardial infarction – death of a region of heart muscles due to sudden blockage of a blood vessel supplying that region. This also produces anginal pain.
Valvular disorders: Disease of any of the four valves of the heart – mitral, aortic or pulmonary. It can be either a narrowing of the valve orifice or leak.
Cor Pulmonale: Cor means heart – disease of the heart secondary to lung disease. Long standing severe lung disease damages the blood vessels of the lung and elevates blood pressure in the pulmonary (lung) vessels. This overloads the right ventricle which pumps blood to the lung and it fails.
CAD: Coronary artery disease – disease of the arteries supplying blood to the heart. It can produce angina, ACS and MI. If long standing and severe, it can produce CHF.
Filed under: Angina Pectoris
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