Cardiac insufficiency
Drug based treatments vary across different stages, symptoms and various patients belonging to various age groups and specifications. Treatment is usually complex and involves utilizing drug combinations.
Vasodilators, diuretics, digoxin, anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs, beta blockers and calcium pump inhibitors in cases when they are necessary. Treatment aims at curing the symptoms.
Surgery is sometimes used in order to treat certain symptoms. Common procedures utilized include myotomy, myectomy, myocardial bridging, substituting or repairing the mitral valve, implantation of a defibrillator in the heart, heart transplant, implantation of a pacemaker, etc.
Given that rheumatism, hypertonic disease and atherosclerosis are the most common causes which lead to cardiac insufficiency, treating these conditions individually means simultaneously preventing cardiac insufficiency. In addition to the primary conditions, treatment must be taken to treat any bronchopulmonary infections, influenza infections, streptococcal infections, etc, since they can cause cardiac disease patients to not be able to compensate.
It is of high importance to maintain proper hygiene and diet. Patients must forego physical exertion and psychological stresses. Their diet should be adapted to be easily digestible, rich in vitamins (especially of the B complex), and it should not contain more than 0.5 - 2.0 g of sodium taken per day. These individuals can be treated as outpatients but still remain under continuous medical supervision.
Prognosis is a matter upon which limited remarks can be made. It is intrinsically connected to the nature of the cardiopathy which caused the insufficiency. The prognosis is less favorable for patients suffering from infarction of the myocardium, hypertonic disease or aortic defects than it is for patients suffering from stenosis or mitral ailments.
This occurs because in the aforementioned severe conditions, the main pressure falls on the left ventricle, which is constructed of thicker muscular walls, and can resist damage for longer periods of time. When the left ventricle can no longer compensate, the disease worsens and it is difficult to recover.
In the case of less severe conditions, the right ventricle sustains most of the damage, which means it becomes impossible to compensate faster, but the patients can recover faster as well. Prognosis may worsen in the advent of complications such as embolisms and pulmonary infarctions, etc. The prognosis is more favorable for constrictive pericarditis which disappears after a pericardiectomy.
Cardiac insufficiency is a clinical syndrome which is characterized by the inability of the heart to pump well enough to supply all the tissues of the body with blood. Since the heart and peripheral vessels are functionally a joint system, one can also use the term cardiovascular insufficiency as well as cardiac insufficiency.
The reduction in contractile power of the myocardium causes the cavities of the heart to not be fully emptied, hence the residual systolic blood and the ventricular diastolic pressure rise. Alongside the aforementioned, the atrial pressure rises, and the flow of venous blood is obstructed.
The causes of cardiac insufficiency are multiple and include: determining factors, factors which lead to the emergence of the disease like extreme physical exertions, various infections such as acute pneumopathies, influenza, etc.
There are many cardiac insufficiency classifications being used. These classifications are used in order to help with a better understanding of the different stages and the treatment of the various stages.
Patients suffering from cardiac insufficiency are more predisposed to developing acute pneumopathy, which is favored for development due to pulmonary stasis; embolisms and pulmonary infarctions; bacterial endocarditis, etc.
The diagnosis is based on the information collected from the patient history; organic cardiopathic signs such as dyspnea, pulmonary stasis, tachycardia, galloping rhythm, coughing with hemoptoic sputum etc, are all symptoms related to the left ventricle.
Preventive non-drug based treatments include bed rest and diet. Drug based treatments vary across different stages, symptoms and various patients belonging to various age groups and specifications. Treatment is usually complex and involves utilizing drug combinations.
Acute insufficiency of the left ventricle is characterized by dyspnea which occurs mostly at night, resembling cardiac asthma or acute pulmonary edema. The earliest symptom to emerge in chronic insufficiency of the left ventricle is dyspnea.
Upon conducting an examination of the heart, one can observe the left ventricle has been displaced to the bottom left, the heart sounds are muted, fast and a galloping rhythm and systolic noise can be heard at the apex of the heart as a consequence of the functional mitral insufficiency.
Acute insufficiency of the right ventricle usually emerges as a consequence of a pulmonary embolisms. Chronic insufficiency of the right ventricle patients complain of a feeling of heaviness or pain in the right hypochondrium.
Upon conducting a heart examination, it is noted that there is tachycardia, the heart sounds have become muted, there are galloping sounds and systolic rumours in the vicinity of the xiphoid process, which all indicate a functional insufficiency of the tricuspid valve.