Ischaemic heart disease Flashcards
Learning outcomes
- Describe the causes of ischaemic heart disease
- Describe the macroscopic features of coronary artery atheroma
- Describe the clinical and pathological features of acute myocardial infarction
- Describe the complications of acute myocardial infarction
- Describe the clinico-pathological features of chronic ischaemic heart disease
What is ischaemic heart disease?
What does it lead to?
- Ischaemic heart disease is where the blood vessels supplying the heart (coronary vessels) are narrowed or blocked
- This results in a mismatch of blood supply (coronary blood flow) to demand (myocardial oxygen consumption)
what does chronic coronary insufficiency cause?
angina
what are different types of unstable coronary disease?
acute coronary syndromes
myocardial Infantin
unstable angina
sudden ischaem ic coronary death
epicardial
outer surface of heart
endocardial
inner surface of heart
subendocardial region
water shed area of perfusion and first to becomes ischaemic
posterior descending artery infarction type?
true posterior infarction
left anterior descending artery infarction?
anterior MI
circumflex coronary infarction?
lateral MI
What are 3 different names for Ischaemic heart disease (IHD)?
- Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is also known as:
1) Atherosclerotic heart disease
2) Coronary heart disease
3) Coronary artery disease
What are 4 the main cardiac effects of Ischaemic heart disease?
1) Chronic coronary insufficiency
* Causes Angina - this is the pain of myocardial ischemia.
* IHD usually becomes symptomatic only when the luminal cross-sectional area of the affected vessel is reduced by more than 75%, leading to coronary insufficiency
2) Unstable coronary disease (likely due to clot of plaque)
* Can lead to:
* Myocardial infarction
* Sudden ischemic coronary death
3) Heart Failure
* Contractile impairment in these people is due to irreversible loss of myocardium (previous infarcts) and hypoperfusion of surviving muscle, which leads to chronic ventricular dysfunction
4) Arrhythmia
* Due to acute ischaemia
* Scar related
What is the epicardium?
What is the endocardium?
What is the subendocardial space?
Why is it relevant in IHD?
- Epicardium = outer surface of the heart (consistent with visceral layer of serous pericardium)
- Endocardium = inner surface of the heart
- Subendocardial space is the area beneath the endocardium or between the endocardium and myocardium
- The subendocardial space is the water-shed area of perfusion and first to become ischaemic
What is the main cause of angina?
- Subendocardial ischaemia due to epicardial coronary artery stenosis and is the main cause of angina
What are the main epicardial coronary branches?
- The main epicardial coronary arteries are the left and right coronary arteries and their branches
What are the 3 main imaging techniques used for coronary artery imaging?
- Main imaging techniques used for coronary artery imaging:
1) Coronary Angiography
2) CT
3) MR imaging
What are 7 risk factors of IHD?
- Risk factors of IHD:
1) Age
2) Hypertension
3) Hypercholesterolaemia
4) Smoking
5) Diabetes
6) Obesity
7) Physical inactivity
What is hypercholesterolaemia?
How does this affect endothelial function?
Where does LDL accumulate in this condition?
What does this cause?
What happens when Macrophages ingest LDL?
What are these chemotactic for?
What happens to the motility of macrophages?
What does this stimulate the release of?
How do these effect endothelial and smooth muscle cells?
- Hypercholesterolaemia is a form of hyperlipidaemia, where there is too much bad LDL cholesterol in the blood
- This impairs endothelial function
- In this condition, LDL cholesterol accumulates in the tunica intima, which causes oxidative modification of LDL
- When macrophages in the tunica intima ingest oxidised LDL cholesterol via scavenger receptors, they become foam cells
- These foam cells are very chemotactic for monocytes, which come into the tunica intima and become macrophages
- Ingesting the LDL cholesterol will inhibit motility in the macrophages
- This stimulates the release of cytokines, which are cytotoxic to endothelial and smooth muscle cells
What are the 3 roles of macrophages in the development of atherosclerosis?
- Role of macrophages in development of atherosclerosis:
1) Macrophages engulf oxidised LDL to from Foam cells
2) They secret various factors, such as Interleukin 1 and Growth factors, which will be chemotactic for more monocytes
3) Macrophages can form a fatty streak, which is the first grossly visible (to the naked eye) lesion in the development of atherosclerosis
Role of smooth muscles in the development atherosclerosis.
What does the fatty streak mature into?
What 3 steps is this done in?
- The fatty streak matures into fibrofatty atheroma
- Steps of this process:
1) The smooth muscle enters the tunica intima, which help in formation of collagen on the surface of fibrous tissue, causing a fibrous cap
2) In the centre of the atheroma, foam cells will eventually die, the LDL cholesterol will crystalise and will group together in the centre forming a lipid necrotic debris
3) It is now a full formed fibrofatty atheroma
What is morphology?
What is the morphology of atherosclerosis?
- Morphology is the visual study of anomalies caused by diseases
- Morphology of atherosclerosis is an atheromatous (fibrofatty, fibro-lipid) Plaque which:
1) Is patchy and raised white to yellow 0.3-1.5cm
2) Has a core of lipid
3) Has a fibrous cap