Treatment for cardiovascular disease. Flashcards
What is coronary heart disease?
What is it caused by?
Coronary arteries supply heart muscle with blood.
Coronary heart disease is when layers of fatty material build up in coronary arteries causing them to be narrow.
This reduces blood flow to heart muscle, causing less oxygen to get to heart muscle,
Can result in heart attacks.
What do stents do?
What are they?
Risks and positives?
They keep coronary arteries open.
They’re tubes that are put into coronary arteries by surgery, and allow more blood to reach heart muscles.
They’re effective for a long time, and recovery time is quick.
Risks - heart attacks during surgery, infection after, and developing blood clot near stent.
What do statins do?
What is cholesterol?
What are they?
Cholesterol is a lipid your body needs.
Too much cholesterol can cause fatty deposits to form inside arteries.
Statins are drugs that can reduce amount of cholesterol in the blood.
This slows down rate of fatty deposits forming.
Advantages and disadvantages of statins.
Advantages - Reduce risks of strokes, coronary heart disease and heart attacks.
Disadvantages- Must be taken regularly for a long time, people could forget to take them, can cause side effects, and the effect isn’t instant.
When can an artificial heart be used?
Can happen if no donor heart is available or if someone has heart failure.
Can be used to keep person alive until donor heart is available, or to help someone heal.
Sometimes it is permanent,
Advantages of artificial hearts.
Made from metals or plastics.
Makes them less likely to be attacks by body’s immune system than a donor heart.
What are disadvantages of artificial hearts?
Surgery can lead to bleeding and infection.
Don’t work as well as natural ones.
Blood doesn’t flow through artificial hearts as smoothly, can lead to blood clots and strokes.
Patient had to take drugs to thin blood, causing them to bleed easier.
What can heart valves be damaged by?
what does this cause?
How can they be replaced?
Can be damaged by heart attacks, infections or old age.
Can cause valve to stiffen.
Can become leaky.
Means blood doesn’t flow as smoothly as normal,
Can be replaced by biological valves from humans or other mammals, or mechanical valves.
Less risky than heart transplants, but can cause blood clots. i
