Heart attacks:
- Blood supply is suddenly blocked from getting to the heart
- Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of heart attacks
- Blood supply is trapped by fatty substances in the coronary arteries
- When a plaques ruptures it causes a blood clot
- Can also block the blood getting to the heart
High and low blood pressure:
- The exact reasons are unknown
- High
- Many factors such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, being overweight, stress…
- Low
- Symptoms are light-headedness, chest pain, blurred vision…
Atheroma:
- Patches of atheroma are like small fatty lumps
- Develop within the inside lining of blood vessels (arteries)
- A patch of atheroma can make an artery narrower
- Can reduce the blood flow through the artery
Stents:
- Small mesh tube
- Used to treat narrow or weak arteries or to improve blood flow and help prevent the arteries from bursting
- Usually made of metal mesh
- Some are coated with medicine that is slowly and continuously released into the artery
Statins:
- A class of medicines that are used to lower blood cholesterol levels
- Block the action of an enzyme in the liver that is necessary for making cholesterol
- Can get many different types
Pacemakers:
- Emits electrical impulses through the wires to the heart
- Rate at which the electrical impulses are sent out is called the pacing rate
- Almost all modern pacemakers work on demand
- Means they can be programmed to adjust the discharge rate in response to the body’s needs
- If the pacemaker senses that the heart has missed a beat or is beating too slowly, it sends signals at a steady rate
- If it senses that your heart is beating normally by itself, it doesn’t send out any signals
Heart transplants:
- An operation to replace a damaged or failing heart
- Use a healthy heart from a donor who has recently died
- Have to have an in-depth assessment to check whether you’re healthy enough to have one before being placed on a waiting list
Artificial hearts:
- A device that replaces the heart
- Typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation
- Or to permanently replace the heart in case heart transplantation is impossible