Leading Causes of Death: Heart Disease

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Heart diseases are a leading cause of death throughout the world. Myocardial infarction with serious damage to the left ventricular function as well as valvular heart disease continue to affect many people causing morbidity and mortality (Weber et al. 2013). Valvuar heart disease includes a condition called valvular stenosis, where the tissues in the valves become stiffer and fails to open properly, resulting in the valve opening to become narrow. This causes the blood flow to lessen due to not being able to flow thoroughly, which may cause the body to not receive proper blood flow. Myocardial infarction is the death of the cells in an area of the myocardium. This causes oxygen deficiency that is caused by a block in the blood supply also known as a heart attack. The left ventricle is the common site for MI, which is the chamber of the heart that works the most. This results in fibrotic scar formation and permanently impaired cardiac function (Zammaretti 2004). Tissue changes in the myocardium are associated to how much the cells have been deprived of oxygen. Thi...

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