Heart disease. .. For a simple person, far from medicine, this diagnosis is associated with some serious congenital disease. But heart defects are not only congenital ailments, they can appear throughout life.
Most often in medical practice, there are so-called valvular forms of defect - pathological changes in the structure of the heart valves, preventing their normal operation and leading to a malfunction of the cardiac activity as a whole.
This article deals with one of such diseases - aortic heart disease.
General and statistical information
Aortic heart disease is commonly understood as the congenital or acquired change in the normal anatomical structure of the aortic heart valve , which lies on the border of the leftventricle and aorta.
This is an three-leaf valve
, the main task of which is to perform a partial discharge of oxygenated arterial blood into the aorta. The functioning of a large circle of blood circulation, the very one that supplies blood to all the internal organs of a person, largely depends on his coordinated work.Dysfunction of this valve or its vice will inevitably lead to disruption of the normal blood supply of the whole organism. There are two main types of vicious aortic valve functioning:
- Valve valves that normally close after each dropping of blood from the ventricle into the aorta are tightly closed, for various reasons the ceases to close tightly to each other .
As a result, part of the blood intended for entry into the aorta returns to the left ventricle, which overflows and begins to stretch, increase and act under congestion.
- Due to the organic damage, the valve flaps of lose their elasticity and cease to unfold completely .In this case, the lumen of the valve, which normally in an adult person is an opening of about 3 cm2, is reduced.
As a result, the flow capacity of such a valve becomes less: not all blood from the ventricle enters the aorta, some of it simply does not have time to get there during the cardiac impulse and remains in the ventricle.
The result is a gradual stretching and hypertrophy of the left ventricle and heart failure. A constriction of the valve or stenosis is another variant of heart disease.
Causes of
Both stenosis and insufficiency can occur both in isolation and in the form of a combined aortic heart disease. In any case, it will be about aortic heart disease. The causes of this pathology depend on its nature:
- Congenital malformation of is a consequence of underdevelopment or pathological formation of the valve still in the fetus at the stage of intrauterine development. The incidence of congenital aortic deformities is about 1%.
- Acquired vice appears as a result of transferred rheumatic or infectious diseases( systemic lupus erythematosus, tonsillitis, venereal diseases, etc.) - 30% of all diagnosed cases of the disease are associated with this.
Inflammatory processes during these diseases often cover the area of the endocardium, which causes the valvular valve tissues to deform and scar tissue.
Clinical manifestations and differences
A characteristic feature of this disease is its long asymptomatic period .Compensatory capabilities of the human heart are very large and therefore the body takes a lot of time to relatively imperceptibly correct the defect present in the valve operation.
Asymptomatically, the vice can actually proceed until the until the aortic valve has performed its functions less than 50% of the from the normal volume.
This is the main danger of this pathology: after all, at the time of the appearance of the first clinical signs of the disease, the heart works almost at the limit of its capabilities. Therefore timely diagnosis of aortic malformation is already half the favorable prognosis of treatment.
Symptoms of ailment, which should be closely watched:
- Feeling of intense heartbeat , the discomfort from which can even interfere with sleeping or doing the usual work.
- Dizziness, tinnitus, pre-fainting conditions, weakness and loss of strength of are all symptoms of progressive oxygen starvation of the body due to insufficient blood filling of the circulatory system.
- Shortness of breath is a characteristic "heart" symptom that appears first only after considerable physical effort, and then even when doing household tasks and at rest.
- Angina of the - retrosternal pain and a feeling of heaviness.
- Swelling of the legs, discomfort in the liver are symptoms of severe disease that appear later.
Specific signs of problems with the aortic valve are:
- Unusual pulse and pressure .For example, the pulse can be very weak and barely palpable on the arm, while the whole body feels the beating of large arteries. There is also a large difference between the upper and lower pressure indicators.
- Specific pallor of the skin - the so-called "aortic pallor" without signs of cyanosis or unhealthy blush.
- In accordance with the phases of the cardiac cycle, the patient's head can swing, the pupils dilate and contract, the carotid arteries in the neck to pulsate - these are all bright demonstrative signs, characteristic exclusively for this disease.
Diagnostic methods
| Diagnostic method | Characteristic signs of aortic defect |
| Analysis of anamnesis | In the past there were short-term episodes of cardiac pain, pre-occlusive conditions, dyspnoea after physical effort. Postoperative diseases are provocative: autoimmune or infectious. |
| External examination | Pale, unusual pulse and pressure, strong pulsation of arteries on the neck and body. |
| Heart auscultation | Systolic murmur and systolic "click", a characteristic change in cardiac tones. |
| Electrocardiogram | There may be minor signs of left ventricular hypertrophy |
| Radiography | Heart shape in the form of a "shoe" due to an increase in the left ventricle |
| Ultrasound of the heart with doppler, transthoracic ultrasound | Deformed valve valves with a limited range of mobility. Change in velocity and direction of blood flow through the valve. |
| Coronary angiography and cardiac catheterization | The most accurate research methods used to diagnose in the case of blurred results of non-invasive research methods. |
Also find out what a tricuspid valve is and what symptoms it usually accompanies. This can be very useful. What are the common heart defects? A detailed classification of all varieties is presented here.
Tactics of treatment
Treatment of pathology depends on its severity and stage of the disease. Most often, patients are necessarily hospitalized with in order to conduct a full diagnostic examination in a hospital and begin treatment, minimizing the risk of complications.
Conservative drug treatment is in demand in the early stages of the disease and in the preparation of the patient for subsequent surgical intervention.
Drug Therapy Directions:
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