Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most common types of heart diseases. In the United States, CAD is the leading cause of death in both men and women. The disease occurs when a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside the coronary artery. The coronary arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscles. Both of my grandfathers suffer from coronary artery disease and I want to learn more about the disease to better understand how it affects them both mentally and physically.
Although coronary artery disease does not have a specific who, what, or when it is said to have been discovered in the 13th century. Leonardo Di Vinci was alleged to have looked into coronary arteries. William Harvey in the 16th century was also credited to have discovered how the blood moves throughout the body. It was not until the 19th century when doctors and researchers started to redirect their attention to coronary arteries. Near the end of this century researchers realized the blockage of arteries in a dog caused theirs ventricle to "quiver" and kill them in a short amount of time. In 1878, Ludwig Hektoen theorized that some diseases were a result of coronary artery disease such as myocardial infraction. Until the mid-1900s researchers were not positive on what coronary artery disease actually was. Over the past 60 years a vast amount of data has been discovered. Recently, an Egyptian princess that lived more than 3,500 years ago that died from coronary artery disease was discovered by scientists in 2011.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the number one killer in America, affecting more than 13 million people. CAD occurs when a fatty substance called plaque builds up in the coronary arteries. These arteries disperse oxygen-ric...
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...oblems and keeping up a healthy lifestyle. With heart disease being the number one killer in both men and women there are many support groups and organizations funding researches to find cures. Some patients have to give up working or physical activities due to the heart not being able to handle it. CHD sufferers generally have to give up alcohol which can cut back on people's social life. These outcomes of having CHD usually take a toll of people both mentally and physically, but with the help of family and friends most sufferers fight through it.
Works Cited
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cad/causes.html
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cad/treatment.html
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cad/prevention.html
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cad/livingwith.html
Coronary artery disease is a heart disease characterized by narrow arteries and restricted blood flow in arteries and is the major cause of morbidity and mortality globally.[1] According to WHO estimation, 6.8% in men and 5.3% in women are affected globally.[2-4] Cardiovascular disease account for 29% of all deaths in Canada; of all the cardiovascular death, 54% and 23% was due to ischemic heart disease and heart attack, respectively. The total costs for heart disease and stroke were more than $20.9 billion every year. [5,6] With more than 1 artery impacted, multivessel coronary artery disease is more complex and more likely accompanied by other comorbidities including diabetes or high blood pressure; multivessel coronary artery disease usually is more difficult to deal with, has worse prognosis and cost more compared with single coronary artery disease. [7]
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of multifactorial chronic heart disease. It is a consequence of plaque buildup in coronary arteries. The arterial blood vessels, which begin out smooth and elastic become narrow and rigid, curtailing blood flow resulting in deprived of oxygen and nutrients to the heart [1].
In today’s society, people are gaining medical knowledge at quite a fast pace. Treatments, cures, and vaccines for various diseases and disorders are being developed constantly, and yet, coronary disease remains the number one killer in the world.
1) Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)/Coronary Heart Disease (CHD): In the United States, CAD accounts for one death every minute making it a leading cause of death (Kones, 2011). Individuals at risk for CAD include those with modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Non-modifiable risk factors for CAD include: age, race, family history. Modifiable risk factors include: hypertension, obesity, smoking, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and minimal to no physical exercise. If untreated, CAD can lead to heart failure (Kones, 2011). Individuals with CAD may present to their primary care providers with symptoms such as: angina, shortness of breath, indigestion/heartburn, and dyspnea on exertion. Individuals develop CAD when plaque obstructs the coronary arteries
Cardiovascular Disease is defined by the American Heart Association as “Heart and blood vessel disease”. Atherosclerosis of the arteries, can lead to hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmias, heart valve problems, myocardial infarctions or a stroke (AHA, 2016). In this paper, all of heart and vessel diseases aforementioned, will be considered cardiovascular disease (CVD). According to
CHD is primarily due to atherosclerosis, which is the blockage of blood flow in the arteries due to the accumulation of fats, cholesterol, calcium and other substances found in the blood. Atherosclerosis takes place over many years, but when the blood flow becomes so limited due to the build up of plaque in the arteries, there becomes a serious problem. “When...
Coronary artery disease is thought to begin with damage or injury to the inner layer of a coronary artery, sometimes as early as childhood. The damage may be caused by various factors including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and radiation therapy to the chest. Once the inner wall of an artery is damaged, fatty deposits made of cholesterol and other cellular waste products tend to accumulate at the site of injury in a process called atherosclerosis. If the surface of these plaques breaks or ruptures, blood cells called platelets will clump at the site to try to repair the artery. This clump can block the artery, leading to a heart attack.
Cardiovascular Disease is broad term that encompasses several diseases related to heart or blood vessels or both. Some of which include, congenital heart abnormalities, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, diseases of the cardiac valves, cardiomyopathies, and cancer. There are many causes of CVD but hypertension and atherosclerosis (hardening of the artery) are most common. It’s true when H.L. Menchen said, “As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft.”
Ischemic Heart Disease, also known as Coronary Artery Disease, is a condition that affects the supply of blood to the heart. Coronary artery disease may show no signs of symptoms, or chest pain before you know heart attack. The blood vessels are narrowed or blocked due to the deposition of cholesterol on their walls. This reduces the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscles, which is essential for proper functioning of the heart. This may eventually result in a portion of the heart being suddenly deprived of its blood supply leading to the death of that area of heart tissue, resulting in a heart attack. The cardiovascular issue has been a big problem for people who
There are almost 7 million Americans in the United States that suffer from Coronary Artery Disease today. The prognosis for many of these patients depends upon the major therapeutic option of medical management that they choose to receive, the most essential variables that predict the prognosis and likelihood for future events are the extent and severity of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Basically, this translates to mean that the more abnormal the scans and tests are, the higher the prognosis is going to be for future coronary events to occur and therefore the higher the prognosis is going to be for a shorter life span, the lower the progression of the disease the higher the chance is going to be for a longer life span for the patient. A higher risk patient is going to be one with extensive defects from the disease, a patient with little to no defects is going to be low risk, and those with limited defects are going to be at a more intermediate risk. Whether it is because of their familial history of the disease or because of risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or obesity really does not matter considerably because many of the 500,000 deaths that occur from this disease could be prevented if more of the risk factors were prevented. This disease is the number one killer of both men and women older than 65 years of age because coronary artery disease in contracted as a result from the narrowing of the coronary arteries that feed the heart, and when those arteries become clogged and cannot supply enough blood, oxygen and nutrients in the coronary arteries, people develop chest pains, also more commonly known as angina which is a secondary condition of having Coronary Artery Disease. . These t...
Coronary heart disease is defined by the hardening of the epicardial coronary arteries. The buildup of plaque in the arteries slowly narrows the coronary artery lumen. In order to better understand the physiology of the disease, it is important to first know the basic anatomy of the human heart. The aorta, located in the superior region of the heart, branches off into two main coronary blood vessels, otherwise known as arteries. The arteries are located on the left and right side of the heart and span its surface. They subsequently branch off into smaller arteries which supply oxygen-rich blood to the entire heart (Texas Heart Institute, 2013). Therefore, the narrowing of these arteries due to plaque buildup significantly impairs blood flow throughout the heart.
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. 13 million people are affected by this disease. CHD is also called Hardening of the Arteries, CAD. CHD is cause by the build-up of plaque in the arteries that connect to the heart. The build-up is caused by fat materials and other substances that form plaque. The plaque builds-up on the wall of the coronary arteries. The coronary arteries are responsible of the blood flow and oxygen that gets to the heart. The build-up of the fat materials causes the arteries to get narrow, this results in the blood flow and oxygen to the heart to slow down or even stop.
Cardiovascular disease is currently the nation’s leading non-communicable cause of morbidity and mortality. According to the American Heart Association, the most common form of cardiovascular disease is coronary artery disease, a condition in which the heart’s blood supply is reduced due to a narrowing of the coronary arteries. These arteries play a significant role in regulating the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart. As blood circulates through the arteries, it exerts a force against the vessel walls, known as blood pressure. To withstand this pressure, elastic fibers interspersed along the artery walls allow the arteries to expand and recoil. Abnormally high blood pressure, however, will cause these muscles to thicken as a result of tears in the damaged artery walls trapping particles that aggregate as plaque. Progressive build-up of plaque ultimately leads to a narrowing of the arteries, subsequently diminishing blood flow to the heart and other body organs. This cascade of events triggered by high blood pressure illustrates why hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Affecting 1 in every 3 adults in the United States alone, hypertension substantially raises the risk for heart disease in an affected individual who, most likely, does not show any signs or symptoms. In addition to the risks associated with this “silent killer,” comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol can drastically worsen health outcomes in hypertensive patients. Given the high prevalence and severe consequences of hypertension if undetected, researching this particular topic will increase our understanding of the causes of hypertension by identifying and narrowing down lead candidates for pot...
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) refers to dysfunction of the left ventricle as a result of insufficient delivery of oxygen to the myocardium, which can occur due to coronary artery disease (CAD) (Cassar et al., 2009). If it is severe and sustained will lead to irreversible myocardial cell damage and infarction of the myocardium (Cassar et al., 2009). CAD is the most frequent cause of IHD in which deposition of atherosclerotic plaque overtime results in stenosis inside the artery and reduced blood flow to the heart or a rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque in a coronary artery can occur leading to thrombus formation in that artery (Koulaouzidis, 2013). The subendocardium is most vulnerable to ischemia and the infarct may expand to the subepicardium
Myocardial infarction occurs when the coronary arteries are blocked by a blood clot. It is commonly known as “heart attack”. The heart needs its own constant supply of oxygen and nutrients to work properly. Two coronary arteries delivery oxygenated blood to the heart, and if one of these two arteries fail or become blocked, then a portion of the heart will not acquire the necessary oxygen. This clot could be because of CAD (coronary artery disease), which happens when the inner walls of the coronary arteries thicken because of build up of cholesterol, fatty deposit, calcium among other elements that are carried in the blood (Boston Scientific, 2009).