Heart Disease Diagnosis, Treatment And Improving Heart Health
Heart disease is a ubiquitous term covering many conditions afflicting the heart and associated body systems like arteries, veins and the lungs. Heart disease can also be either an infection (bacteria or viruses attacking the heart) or physical ailments leading to lower heart function (blockage, muscle damage, stress, irregular heart rhythm, etc.). Heart conditions involve one of two types of medical treatment: invasive (surgical) and non-invasive (drugs, therapy, imaging studies, etc.).
Any heart disease treatment course must begin with a proper diagnosis. Diagnosing heart conditions can involve blood and tissue tests (for examining possible infectious diseases), imaging studies so the doctor can see the heart and how it is functioning, stress testing to raise the heart function to higher levels and measuring the results and invasive procedures. Doctors will use a variety of diagnostic options to go inside the body and see and examine the heart and surrounding body systems to get an accurate assessment of the heart’s impairment. Doctors can also analyze various dyes entered into the blood stream to track blood flow around the heart using medical imaging devices for observing inside the body.
Once the heart’s condition is properly diagnosed the doctor can then determine the proper course of heart disease treatments to improve heart function or cure a heart infection. There are numerous heart medications to adjust and treat different heart conditions. If someone has a rapid heart rate leading to high blood pressure, drugs will slow down the heart. Other drugs can reduce the amount of blockage (arterial plaque) that clog up the arteries. These smaller passages put stress on the heart as it tries to pump blood through these constricted vessels. Other drugs can eliminate various infections that attack the heart, the surrounding tissue, heart valves and heart muscles. Some of these drug treatments are for a prescribed time or can be life long for the patient (or until a new treatment option is developed in the future).
For some conditions; however, heart disease treatment will involve surgical intervention. If arteries supplying blood to the heart (the heart not only pumps blood to every body part from the feet to the brain but also to itself) are blocked too much, rerouting the blood with a bypass may be necessary. If the heart has an irregular beat and needs adjustment, doctors can install a small pacemaker device that will steady the heart and produce regular heartbeats. Doctors can also surgically introduce different means of removing the plaque buildup in heart blood vessels to avoid a more complicated bypass operation. Doctors can also insert through an artery a device that will enlarge in the artery to clear it of blockage. Rarely do doctors try and remove such plaque in the artery. The consequences of such a procedure are small pieces of plaque become loose in the artery and are pumped to another location such as the brain, which cause a clotting stoppage of blood flow.
Finally, doctors can prescribe treament courses for heart patients combining both surgery and follow-up drug therapy for improving the patient’s qualify of life. Any patient diagnosed with heart disease should try not to be discouraged with their condition until realizing the full benefits of all the heart disease treatments available for improving heart health.