Circulatory System Diseases Flashcards
Myocardial infarction (MI)
Layman’s language for this is “heart attack.” The blockage of blood flow resulting in death of heart muscle tissue occurs in one of the arteries of the heart muscle itself, a coronary artery.
Atherosclerosis
Hardening of the fatty stuff
Mitral prolapse, stenosis, regurgitation
Blood flows through four chambers in the heart separated by one-way valves. A major valve is the one separating the upper and lower chambers on the left side of the heart. The left side is especially important because freshly oxygenated blood returning from the lungs is circulated out of the heart to the rest of the body. The left valve, called atrioventricular, for the chambers it separates, is also called the mitral valve, because it is shaped like an upside down Bishop’s hat, a miter. If the flaps of this valve tear away due to disease, the process is called prolapse, “a falling forward.” This results in leakage and backward flow called “regurgitation.” Sometimes a valve is abnormally narrow causing partial obstruction constricting flow. Stenosis means “a narrowing.”
Angina pectoris
Pain in the chest. But this is a special kind of pain associated with the heart and is distinctive as “crushing, vise-like”, and 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. People with a history of angina often take nitro glycerine tablets to relieve the pain by increasing blood flow to the heart muscle.
Arrhythmia/dysrhythmia
Abnormal heart rates and rhythms all have special names like ventricular tachycardia, fibrillation, but genetically are termed arrhythmias or dysrhythmja, meaning “no rhythm” and “abnormal rhythm.” There are distinctions between the two, but they are often used interchangeably.
Ischemia
Sometimes the heart muscle is not getting enough blood flow, more importantly, the oxygen the blood carries is insufficient to sustain muscle which had a very high metabolic rate, and oxygen demand. The term loosely means “not quite enough blood.” Typically, the patient suffers angina pain and they think they are having a heart attack. And, they may be!
