Discuss one disease or disorder of the cardiovascular system

Discuss one disease or disorder of the cardiovascular system. Include the probable causes, behaviors that will lower risk for the disease, diagnostic procedures, treatments, and any psychological impacts that victims of the disease might suffer.

Solution

Coronary artery disease

One or more of the coronary arteries cause insufficient coronary blood flow. The result may be myocardial damage in the affected region and, if severe enough, death of that portion of the heart -a myocardial infarction (heart attack). Many patients with coronary artery disease experience recurrent short-lived episodes of inadequate coronary blood flow, usually during exertion or emotional tension, before ultimately suffering a heart attack. The chest pain associated with these episodes is called angina pectoris.

The symptoms of myocardial infarction include prolonged chest pain, often radiating to the left arm, nausea, vomiting, sweating, weakness, and shortness of breath. Diagnosis may be made by ECG changes typical of infarciton and by measurement of certain enzymes in plasma. These enzymes are present in cardiac muscle and leak into the blood when the muscle is damaged; they include particular variants of creatine phosphokinase and lactate dehydrogenase.

Many of the individuals can be saved if modern emergency resuscitation procedures are applied immediately after the attack. This treatment is cardipulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a repeated series of mouth-to-mouth respirations and chest compressions that circulate a small amount of blood to the brain, heart and other vital organs when the heart has stopped. CPR is then followed by definitive treatment, including defibrillation, a procedure in which electric current is passed through the heart to try to halt the abnormal electrical causing the fibrillation. CPR is a potentially life-saving procedure that is easily learned in a few hours of training.