Know Your Heart

ECG: This measures the electrical activity of the heart. A change in the ECG pattern can be indicative of the presence of heart disease.


Stress test/ stress ECG: The stress ECG provides more information that a rest ECG since the oxygen demand on your heart is greated while exercising.


Thallium Stress Test/ nuclear medicine stress test: 1) It is a regular stress test, but a dye is injected into the heart and pictures are taken of the heart, before and after the stress test

2) This can detect areas of the heart muscle that have been damaged by a heart attack and areas that are not getting enough oxygen due to partial blockages of the coronary arteries.


Echocardiography: This test the pumping action of the heart. It also helps to study the motion of the heart valves that control the flow of blood in and out of the heart. During the test, sound waves are bounced off the surface of the heart to produce a picture on the screen.


Coronary angiography: This is a procedure in which a contrast material or dye is injected in to an artery in the leg. The passage of this contrast material is then traced to view the flow of blood through the heart. This test is done to detect any blockages in the arteries of heart.

This is a surgery in which a healthy blood vessel

So You're Having Heart Bypass Surgery

(artery or vein) is used to form a detour (bypass) around a blockage in a coronary (heart) artery. The new blood vessel used is called a 'graft' and therefore the procedues is correctly termed as 'coronary artery bypass graft' surgery. The original blockage in the artery remains as it is, but now there is adequate blood supply to the heart muscle beyond the blockage. Today coronary artery bypass is one of the most frquently performed surgical procedures.


How is bypass surgery done ?

The 'graft' used cab be either an artery or a vein. Most advanced heart centers prefer to use 'arterial grafts' since they have been shown to have a longer life.


What is a 'beating heart' surgery ?

To perform this delicate surgery the surgeons always used a heart-lung machine. This machine allowed the heart to be 'stopped' for a while to perform the grafting. However, over the past few years some of the surgeons also perform the surgery on a 'beating heart' and do not use the heart-lung machine. Here a device called 'OCTOPUS' is used and the surgery is done while the heart is beating. This method has several advantages but is technically more demanding. This method results in the patients spending less time in the ICU, less blood transfusion and complications as well as a shorter hospital stay.

Angioplasty us a medical procedure

Primary Angioplasty in Acute Myocardial Infarction
(Contemporary Cardiology)

in which a balloon is used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels of the heart. A balloon catheter is inserted in or near the blockage and inflated, thus widening or opening the blocked vessel and restoring adquate blood flow to the heart muscle. In almost all cases, a device called a stent is also placed at the site of narrowing or blockage in order to keep the artery open.
A stent is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery that's recently been cleared using angioplasy. When the balloon is inflated, the stent expands, locks in place and forms a scaffold. This holds the artery open. The stent stays in the artery permanently, holds it open, improves blood flow to the heart muscle.
In recent years new types of stents called drug-eluting stents have been used. These are coated with drugs that are slowly released and help keep the blood vessel from reclosing. Some patients can have complications from angiploasty, but major complications are unusual. A very small percentage of patients need emergency coronary bypass surgery when the procedure fails to open the artery.

Heart disease is caused due to the presence of risk factor. To prevent heart disease one must keep there risk factor to a minimum. This can be done through a combination of good eating habits, exercise and medication when required.

Studies shown that certain traits and lifestyle habits increase the risk of a heart attack.These dangerous signs are called " risk factors".Risk factors tend to speed the development of plaque,and by reducing them ,we can block this and decrease the chance of having heart attack.
There are two types of risk factors - those whick can modified and those which cannot.

- The force or pressure of the blood (pumped from the hear) against the walls of the arteries is known as blood pressure.

- Systolic blood pressure

Mark of Fitness MF-84 Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor with Irregular Heartbeat Detection

(top or high number) is the pressure inside your arteries when the heart contracts and pumps blood into your arteries.

- Diastolic blood pressure (bottom or low number) is the pressure inside your arteries when the heart is relaxing and filling with blood.

- The medical term for high blood pressure is hypertension. Over time, high blood pressure can damage your blood vessels and lead to serious health problems.

- The common long-term complications of high blood pressure are; heart disease, stroke, eye damage, kidney damage etc.

- Some people get nervous during a visit to their doctor's office and this cause their blood pressure to incease. They are said to have "white coat hypertension."

- It is a common misconception that your systolic BP should be your age plus 100. This is FALSE.

Normal Blood pressure: Systolic < 120 and Diastolic < 80

* Cholesterol is a soft,white,fat-like substance made in liver and found in your body's cells.
* Cholesterol is present in some of the foods we consume ,which are of animal origin(eg: meat,milk)
* The combination of cholesterol and protein is known as a lipoprotein(lipo means fat)
* The lipid profile ,consists of your total cholesterol ,triglycerides, LDL and HDL
* LDL is called "bad" cholesterol because it causes artherosclerotic plaque to build up inside your coronary arteries
* HDL is called "good "cholesterol because it helps to remove LDl cholesterol from the walls of your coronary arteries
* Triglycerides are fatty substances found in the bloodstream
*High triglycerides are associated with the build up of blockages inside the coronary arteries.
*
Following are the values recommended to keep your risk for heart disease to a minimum:

Total cholesterol-<200mg/dl
Triglycerides-<150mg/dl
HDL cholesterol->40mg/dl
LDL cholesterol -<130mg/dl(less than 100,if you have heart disease or diabetes)

Scientists suggest that taking dietary folic acid supplements helps reduce cardiac cell death in patients suffering from diabetes.

According to a study published in Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, an 11-week course of supplements enhances the expression of cell-death-prevention genes and suppresses cell-death-inducing genes in heart muscles.

The study showed that folic acid not only reduces the death rate in cardiac cells but also makes these cells more resistant to future injuries from diabetes.

Previous studies had shown that high blood glucose levels may damage up to a third of cardiac cells in diabetics.

Diabetes is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart failure (diabetic heart muscle disease or diabetic cardiomyopathy).

Folic acid also known as folate, is found in small amounts in many foods including broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, peas, chickpeas and brown rice.

Diabetes mellitus comes from Greek word diabetes(to flow through urine)and the latin word mellitus (sweetened or honey like)

Type 1 Diabetes :The pancreas is either completely unable to produce insuline or is able to produce only a tiny amount.

Home Diagnostics True Track Smart System Blood Glucose Monitor

Type 2 diabetes:Excess glucose builds up in the blood mainly because the cells become resistant to the insuline the body makes.The pancreas still secreates insulin.

Syndrome X or the insuline resistance syndrome is new term for a cluster of conditions ,that, when occuring together ,may indicate a predisposition to diabetes,hypertension and heart disease

Diabetes is diagnosed on the basis of your fasting glucose levels.A level more than 126mg/dl indicates diabetes