History of IHD disease, symptoms and types of its course

After the brain, the heart is the most important organ in the human body. The heart is responsible for the vital activity of all systems and organs, therefore any inadequate work creates an additional burden on this vital organ. Ischemic heart disease is a chronic disease caused by insufficient intake of oxygen through the coronary arteries to the heart muscle. The history of the disease of IHD consists in narrowing the patency of the coronary arteries due to atherosclerosis. It can have a chronic and acute course, manifested in heart diseases such as cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and sudden death.

During physical or mental stress, as well as at moments of high blood pressure, when the heart experiences an increased load, requiring the consumption of more oxygen, myocardial ischemia occurs. The patient feels pressure at such moments, squeezes the pain behind the sternum, giving a little to the left. The attack of angina pectoris usually immediately passes after the use of nitroglycerin. If such a history of CHD with a sharp attack of angina pauses for more than half an hour - there is a serious threat to life.

Depending on the degree of oxygen starvation of the heart, its causes and duration, there are several forms of cardiac ischemia:

- Asymptomatic ischemia passes unnoticed for the patient and does not cause complaints from his side.

- During physical exertion or stress, with frequent dyspnoea and chest pain, a chronic history of IHD is developing - angina pectoris.

- Unstable angina refers to any attack of angina pectoris, superior in strength to previous attacks accompanied by new symptoms. Such attacks are evidence of complication of the disease and are the first precursors of myocardial infarction.

- A characteristic feature of the arrhythmic form of ischemia of the heart is a violation of its rhythm, manifested in atrial fibrillation.

- Myocardial infarction is a partial dying of the heart muscle. Most often the history of IHD, leading to myocardial infarction, is a consequence of a plaque rupture from the inner wall of the coronary artery or the appearance of a thrombus blocking the arterial patency.

- Sudden death of the heart, expressed in its sharp stop, is the result of significantly lower blood flow to its muscle due to the complete blockage of the large artery.

All types of ischemic course can be combined and influence the further course of the disease. For example, the history of IHD is angina, often accompanied by arrhythmia, and then turning into a myocardial infarction and so on, until sudden death. The death of the site of the heart muscle can occur at any stage of the course of the disease, which is distinguished by four types:

- The asymptomatic stage proceeds during the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of the arteries.

- The stage of appearance of the first signs is expressed in increased pressure, high sugar and cholesterol in the blood. At this interval of the course of the disease, cholesterol plaques can cover up to 50% of arterial patency.

- History of IHD, characterized by an increase in symptoms, manifests itself in frequent dyspnea, irregular heart activity and constricting pain behind the sternum. By this time, the ultrasound of the heart shows an expansion of the heart cavities and a thinning of the heart muscle.

- The last stage is expressed in prolonged heart failure, increased blood pressure, the appearance of edema, atrial fibrillation and a sharp deterioration of the heart. The pain behind the breastbone at this stage appears at the slightest load.

Myocardial infarction does not always lead to death, there are cases when patients transferred it on their feet. But it should be remembered that the infarction inevitably leads to the acceleration of the development of ischemic disease.