Heart Disease

Overview

Heart disease is a very general term comprising variety of diseases related to the heart. However, it can be divided into few types such as cardiac arrhythmias, coronary artery disease, diseases of the aorta, valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy and ultimately heart failure. Commonly, the presenting symptoms for heart diseases are chest pain on exertion, breathlessness, syncope, palpitation. Arrhythmias can be fatal if it's not treated immediately and some of the examples are supraventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter. Coronary artery diseases comprise of unstable angina and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. Diseases of the aorta such as aortic dissection and ruptured aortic aneurysm are medical emergencies, which can cause death if not managed immediately. Valvular heart disease includes aortic, mitral, tricuspid, pulmonary stenosis, regurgitation and prolapse. It can also cause rheumatic heart disease which is an infection commonly affecting valves of the heart.