Myocardium is ... Myocardial diseases

Diseases of the cardiovascular system are increasingly found among patients of different age categories. The reasons for this lie in the unsatisfactory state of the external environment, in the conduct of an incorrect way of life, in a hereditary predisposition. One of the most common factors that affect mortality is myocardial infarction. Also, people suffer from myocarditis, myocardial hypertrophy of the heart, which is associated with a malfunctioning organ or the development of pathological processes in it.

Myocardium is

Myocardium is the thickest and functionally powerful part of the heart wall. It is formed by cardiac cross-striated muscle tissue. An organ consists of cardiomyocytes interconnected by insert discs. As a result of their integration into complexes or muscle fibers, a narrow-web network is formed, which ensures a rhythmic contraction of the ventricles and atria. Myocardium of the left ventricle has the greatest thickness, the atrium is the smallest. The myocardium of atria consists of deep and superficial muscle layers. Myocardium of the ventricles - from the inner, middle and outer.

The muscle fibers of the ventricles and atria begin in the fibrous rings that separate the atrium from the ventricles. They are located around the left and right atrioventricular orifices, forming a skeleton of the heart (pulmonary trunk, rings around the aortic aperture, fibrous triangles).

Diseases of the myocardium

Diseases of the myocardium or myocarditis occur as a result of damage to the heart muscle by infections, protozoal or parasitic invasions, physical or chemical effects, due to autoimmune and allergic diseases. The main factors that are involved in the development of diseases are allergies and infections. Myocardium is an organ in which inflammatory processes can arise as a complication of influenza, angina, diphtheria, scarlet fever, otitis.

Toxins, viruses, microbes damage cardiomyocytes and cause humoral and cellular immune reactions, which is accompanied by the appearance of foci of necrosis, increased hypoxia, edema of tissues, increased vascular permeability. Ignoring the process can lead to its transition to a chronic form. Myocarditis is a group of diseases with different symptoms, pathogenesis and etiology. They are divided into immune and infectious. Another distinguish idiopathic myocarditis, in which the myocardium is severely affected. This disease is recognized as an extreme variant of infectious-allergic myocarditis.

Causes of myocarditis

The development of the disease can be caused by bacteria, acute viral infections (sepsis, pneumonia, scarlet fever, diphtheria and wind sickness, rubella and measles, influenza). The incidence of myocarditis during viral epidemics increases dramatically. The cause of the pathology may be not one infection, but more of them, while one can act as the direct cause of muscle damage, and the second - a condition.

Infringements of immune system and a poisoning also can provoke development of a myocarditis. The development of the disease is facilitated by physical stress and overexertion.

Symptoms of myocarditis

With infectious-toxic and viral myocarditis, symptoms are manifested due to severe intoxication. Symptomatic infectious-allergic myocarditis occurs due to exacerbation of a chronic disease. When poisoning (drug and serum myocarditis) is manifested a day after taking medication or introducing serum. In some cases, the presence of pathology can be detected only with the help of ECG, as clinical manifestations are not expressed.

Violation of the myocardium is accompanied by common symptoms, the severity and nature of which depends on the type of myocarditis. Most often, patients complain of shortness of breath, general weakness, fatigue, pain in the heart. The disease can be accompanied by arrhythmia, tachycardia, the progression of heart failure, the development of hydrothorax and ascites, increased liver, peripheral edema, pulmonary edema, swelling of the cervical veins. The course of myocarditis can be acute, subacute, chronic, recurrent and progressive.

Types of myocarditis

Myocarditis is distinguished on the basis of clinical signs, consequences and etiology.

Bacterial myocarditis affects the interventricular septum and valve rings. They are caused by diphtheria, rods of enterococcus and Staphylococcus aureus. Although the disease is rare, it is very difficult and often leads to the patient's death as a result of worsening heart contractility, flabbiness and enlargement. Improve the patient's condition with antibiotics and antitoxins.

The simplest organisms - trypanosomes - cause the development of extensive myocarditis against the background of Chagas disease. Pathology is characterized by a chronic course with arrhythmia and heart failure. Toksoplazmy provoke the occurrence of myocarditis in patients with weakened immunity. With giant cell myocarditis, giant cells are found that affect the myocardium. This causes heart failure, which quickly progresses and ends with death. In addition, radiation myocarditis and Lim's disease are isolated.

Hypertrophy of the ventricular myocardium

Hypertrophy leads to an increase in the mass of the heart muscle. The condition is quite dangerous and can be fatal. This is the body's response to high blood pressure. Modern methods of treatment can prevent complications and improve the patient's well-being.

The diagnosis of myocardial hypertrophy of the left ventricle is made during medical examination. A person can live with the disease for years without even knowing it exists. Symptoms of pathology resemble angina pectoris. A person experiences pain in the heart, malfunctions of the heart rhythm, shortness of breath during physical actions, there may be fainting. Hypertrophy of the left ventricular myocardium can cause serious complications, even to death. Timely diagnosis and adequate treatment can return a person to the usual way of life.

Causes of myocardial hypertrophy

Hypertrophy means that the ventricular myocardium is enlarged, resulting in unnecessary stress on the heart. As a result, the productivity of the heart is accelerated. The increase in the myocardium in the volume and the loss of its elastic properties results from the failure of the ventricles to eject blood into the aorta at a constantly increased rhythm. Among the factors that cause the development of hypertrophy: acquired and congenital heart disease, excessive exercise, excessive weight, hypertension, impaired blood supply to the body. Variation in the ventricular myocardium can be genetically determined.

The disease affects people of different ages, but most often children and newborns are at risk. Pathology can cause increased heart function when replenishing nutritional deficiencies in organs. Caused by increased pressure in the pulmonary artery hypertrophy is accompanied by fainting, shortness of breath, dizziness.

Myocardial infarction: causes

The disease of myocardial infarction to date is considered one of the most common causes of death from cardiovascular diseases. There is a list of reasons that may be involved in the occurrence of a heart attack, the main one of which is the occlusion of the coronary artery. Development of the disease is facilitated by: violation of fat metabolism, obesity, diabetes, bad habits, vasospasm, physical activity, changes in blood coagulability, hypertension, atherosclerosis, genetic predisposition.

Symptoms of myocardial infarction

The signs of the myocardium are very difficult to recognize, since they have many similarities to angina. But still the pain with a heart attack lasts a long time and does not subside even at rest and after taking vasodilators. Together with severe pain, there is a feeling of unreasonable fear, anxiety. The patient is disturbed by symptoms such as dizziness, severe weakness, vomiting and nausea, increased sweating. In connection with irregularities in the work of the heart , breathing difficulties are observed, the rhythm of cardiac contractions is disrupted, and sudden loss of consciousness can occur. If the patient is not in time provided with assistance for myocardial infarction, it can fatally end.

In some cases, the heart attack proceeds without pain in the heart, mainly in patients with diabetes mellitus. Weaker pain in women is accompanied by shortness of breath, vomiting, nausea, pain in the stomach.

Urgent care

Help with myocardial infarction should be immediate and most effective, because it depends on the person's life. First, the patient should help himself a little: calm down, accept a position in which physical stress is minimal, take an analgesic agent (drugs "Baralgin", "Analgin"), a tablet of nitroglycerin, an aspirin tablet (if there are no allergic reactions, gastritis And peptic ulcer diseases).

Close should immediately call the cardiological team, measure the patient's blood pressure, if possible, give a soothing agent (drops of motherwort, hawthorn, valerian). A patient with a myocardial infarction should be in a recumbent or sitting position. When lifting from a bed, you may experience severe dizziness. This is the result of lowering the pressure with the drug Nitroglycerin.

Prevention of myocardial infarction

To avoid a heart attack, you need to monitor your health and in time to solve some problems with it. Prevention of the disease can be primary (prevention of occurrence) and secondary (prevention of recurrence in those who have already suffered). Preventive measures are important not only for patients with heart problems, but also for absolutely healthy people. They are aimed at eliminating the factors that can lead to the development of cardiovascular disasters.

The first thing a person has to do is control the weight of the body, because overweight is the soil for the onset of diabetes, arterial hypertension. The patient is recommended to lead an active way of life with physical exercises, walking in the fresh air and with the abandonment of bad habits. It is necessary to control the level of cholesterol and sugar in the blood. You need to revise your menu. Fatty dishes, sweets are best replaced with porridge, light salads, vegetables and fruits.