Heart Conditions
Making an informed choice for yourself or your loved one.
Over five million people in the U.S. currently suffer from abnormal heart rhythms, which are known as arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats. There are three types of arrhythmias described in more detail below. The rhythmic beating of the heart results from the transmission of electrical impulses through the heart. When these electrical impulses are mistimed or uncoordinated, the heart fails to function properly, resulting in complications that can range from symptoms of fatigue and palpitations to stroke or sudden death.
Arrhythmias
Sudden cardiac death (also called cardiac arrest) is death resulting from an abrupt loss of heart function. The victim may or may not have been diagnosed with heart disease. The time and mode of death are unexpected. It occurs within minutes after symptoms appear. The most common underlying reason for patients to die suddenly from cardiac arrest is coronary heart disease (fatty buildups in the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle). Almost 295,000 out-of-hospital emergency calls to treat cardiac arrests occur in the United States each year.
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Ventricular tachycardia is considered a serious condition that warrants aggressive monitoring and treatment, because some forms of VT may get worse if left untreated and lead to life-threatening ventricular fibrillation, an uncontrolled irregular heartbeat that can cause death. Ventricular fibrillation is the type of irregular heartbeat that is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death. In VF, the heartbeat is rapid and chaotic, which prevents the ventricles from pumping blood to the brain or body. During VF, the blood pressure falls to zero, and the person falls unconscious.
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Atrial fibrillation is a disorder found in about 2.5 million Americans. During atrial fibrillation, the heart's two small upper chambers (the atria) quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood isn't pumped completely out of them, so it may pool and clot. If a piece of a blood clot in the atria leaves the heart and becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke results. About 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation.
The likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation increases with age. Three to five percent of people over 65 have atrial fibrillation.
The word "congenital" means existing at birth. The terms "congenital heart defect" and "congenital heart disease" are often used to mean the same thing, but "defect" is more accurate.
The heart ailment is a defect or abnormality, not a disease. A defect results when the heart or blood vessels near the heart don't develop normally before birth. Working with your healthcare team, learn about the different types of congenital heart defects, treatments and tests.
Common Types of Heart Defects:
- Aortic Valve Stenosis (AVS)
- Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)
- Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA)
- Complete Atrioventricular Canal
- defect (CAVC)
- d-Transposition of the great arteries
- Ebstein's Anomaly
- I-transposition of the great arteries
- Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA)
- Pulmonary Valve Stenosis
- Single Ventricle Defects
- Tetralogy of Fallot
- Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous
- Connection (TAPVC)
- Truncus Arteriosus
- Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)
Other Conditions
Coronary Artery DiseaseNearly a half million people die annually from coronary artery disease, a condition in which the formation of plaque in the coronary arteries obstructs the supply of blood to the heart, making this the leading cause of death in the U.S. Despite various attempts to reduce risk factors, each year over one million patients undergo interventional procedures in an attempt to open blocked vessels and another a half million patients undergo open heart surgery to bypass blocked coronary arteries.
In heart failure, the muscles on either side of the heart beat out of synchronization. This means that instead of efficiently pumping blood from the heart to the body when the heart "beats", the heart ejects only a fraction of the blood it contains and the rest pools in the heart, causing swelling of the heart and a debilitating deficiency of oxygen in the patient's body. The pooling of blood in the heart can also lead to formation of clots followed by stroke or sudden cardiac death.
