Heart Sounds and Problems
- Heart Murmurs: Sometimes, a doctor can hear extra sounds in your heart, like a “whoosh” or “swish.” These are called murmurs.
- Mitral Stenosis: This murmur sounds like a mid-day swish.
- Mitral Regurgitation: This one is a longer swish that lasts through the whole heartbeat.
- Aortic Stenosis: This murmur is like a whoosh when the heart pushes blood out.
- Aortic Regurgitation: This is an early swish after the heart pushes blood out.
- Machinery Murmur: This sound is like a machine and is sometimes heard in babies.
- Rheumatic Fever: This can happen to young girls who have joint pain, bumps under their skin, and a sore throat. Doctors use something called “Jones criteria” to figure out if it’s rheumatic fever.
- Infective Endocarditis: This is when germs get into your heart, especially if you’ve had a high fever or a new heart murmur.
- Causes:
- Germs from a dental procedure (like brushing your teeth) can cause it.
- If a heart valve is already a little bit broken, germs can get in.
- Germs from skin problems can also cause it.
- Germs can even get in if you have colon cancer.
- How Doctors Find It: Doctors use a special picture of the heart called an “Echo” to see if there are any “vegetations” (like little bumps) in the heart.
- Causes:
Heart Attacks (Myocardial Ischemia and MI)
- Coronary Artery Disease: This is when the tubes that carry blood to your heart get blocked.
- Angina: If the blood tubes are partly blocked, it can cause chest pain.
- MI (Myocardial Infarction): If the blood tubes get fully blocked and part of the heart muscle dies, it’s called a heart attack.
- Signs: Special blood tests called “cardiac markers” go up.
- Special Tests: Doctors look for “Troponin I” and “Troponin T” in your blood. “CKMB” can show if you’ve had another heart attack.
- ECG (Heart Rhythm Test): Doctors also look at a heart rhythm test to see which part of the heart is hurt.
- Dressler Syndrome: Sometimes, about two weeks after a heart attack, people can get a fever and chest pain.
Heart Blocks
- Heart Blocks: This is when the electrical signals in your heart don’t work perfectly, making your heart beat too slowly.
- 1st Degree: The heart beats regularly, but the signal is a little slow.
- 2nd Degree Mobitz Type 1: The signal gets slower and slower until a beat is missed.
- 2nd Degree Mobitz Type 2: The signal is regular, but some beats are missed, and people might need a pacemaker to help their heart beat.
- 3rd Degree (Complete Block): The top and bottom parts of the heart beat on their own, not together. Lyme disease can sometimes cause this.
Heart Muscle Problems (Cardiomyopathy)
- Dilated Cardiomyopathy: The heart muscle gets big and floppy, making it hard to pump blood. This is the most common type. Some medicines can cause it.
- HOCM (Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy): The heart muscle gets too thick, making it hard for blood to fill the heart. This can happen to young athletes.
- Restrictive Cardiomyopathy: The heart muscle gets stiff, making it hard to stretch and fill with blood. This can be caused by problems like too much iron in the body or other specific conditions.
High Blood Pressure (HTN)
- High Blood Pressure: This is when the force of blood against your blood vessels is too high.
- Primary HTN: Most of the time, doctors don’t know why someone has high blood pressure.
- HTN Urgency: High blood pressure without any damage to your body yet.
- HTN Emergency: High blood pressure that is causing damage to your body.
- Medicines for High Blood Pressure:
- ACE Inhibitors: These medicines can sometimes cause a cough or swelling.
- Beta-blockers: These medicines slow your heart down. Some are used for short times, and some can affect other things like asthma.
Heart Medicines (Antiarrhythmics)
- These are medicines that help your heart beat in a regular rhythm.
- Some examples are Procainamide, Quinidine, and Amiodarone.
- Some, like Statins, help lower cholesterol by stopping the body from making something called “mevalonate”.
Heart Failure (CHF)
- Congestive Heart Failure: This is when your heart can’t pump enough blood for your body.
- Right-sided Heart Failure: This can cause swelling in your neck, tummy, and legs.
- Left-sided Heart Failure: This can make you feel out of breath, cough, and have crackly sounds in your lungs.
- Cardiac Tamponade: This is when fluid builds up around the heart, squeezing it and making it hard to beat.
- Signs: Low blood pressure, quiet heart sounds, and swelling in the neck.
- Treatment: Doctors might need to drain the fluid from around the heart.
Heart Sounds (S1 and S2)
- S1: This is the sound of the first set of heart valves closing.
- S2: This is the sound of the second set of heart valves closing.
- Extra Sounds: Sometimes, doctors can hear an extra sound, which can be normal in kids, athletes, or pregnant women. But it can also mean there’s a problem with the heart.