Circulatory System Diseases

Question 1

Atherosclerosis

Answer 1

• “Hardening of the fatty stuff”
• High fat diets can lead to formation of fatty plaques lining blood vessels
• These fatty areas can become calcified and hard leading to arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• When blood vessels become less stretchable, blood pressure rises and can result in heart and kidney damage and strokes

Question 2

Myocardial infarction (MI)

Answer 2

• Myocardial = Heart Muscle
• Infarction = Blockage of blood flow resulting in death of muscle tissue
• Layman’s language = Heart Attack
• Blockage occurs in one of the arteries of the heart muscle itself, a coronary artery
• Depending on how much tissue dies, a victim of an MI may survive and undergo cardiac rehab, or may die if too much muscle tissue is destroyed

Question 3

Mitral prolapse, stenosis, regurgitation

Answer 3

• The left valve = Atrioventricular (also known as, mitral valve)
• Prolapse = Mitral valve flaps tear away due to disease (a falling forward)
• Prolapse results in regurgitation
• Regurgitation = Leakage and backward flow
• Stenosis = Abnormally narrow valve causing partial obstruction constricting flow
• Stenosis means “a narrowing”

Question 4

Angina pectoris

Answer 4

• “Pain in the chest”
• Special kind of pain associated with the heart and is distinctive as “crushing, vise-like”
• Often accompanied by shortness of breath, fatigue, and nausea
• Anginal pain indicates not enough blood is getting to the heart muscle, and the heart is protesting and begging for more.
• Hx of Angina, often take nitroglycerine tablets to relieve the pain by increasing blood flow to the heart muscle

Question 5

Arrhythmia/dysrhythmia

Answer 5

• Abnormal heart rates and rhythms have special names (ventricular tachycardia, fibrillation)
• Arrhythmia = No rhythm
• Dysrhythmia = Abnormal rhythm
• There are fine distinctions between the two, but are often used interchangeably

Question 6

Ischemia

Answer 6

• Heart muscle is not getting enough blood flow
• The oxygen the blood carries is insufficient to sustain muscle which has a very high metabolic rate and oxygen demand
• Ischemia loosely means “not quite enough blood”

Question 7

Cardiomyopathy

Answer 7

• A general term for abnormalities of heart muscle of various causes, but not a myocardial infarction

Question 8

Cardiomegaly

Answer 8

• An enlarged heart

Question 9

Myocarditis

Answer 9

• Inflammation of heart muscle