Download Types of cardiovascular disease

18-19 Types of CVD CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
1
Types of cardiovascular
disease
2 265 824
“All the knowledge I possess everyone else
can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Sorrows of Young Werther 1774
The human heart is only the size
of a fist, but it is the strongest
muscle in the human body.
The heart starts to beat in the
uterus long before birth, usually
by 21 to 28 days after conception.
The average heart beats about
100 000 times daily or about two
and a half billion times over a
70 year lifetime.
With every heartbeat, the heart
pumps blood around the body. It
beats approximately 70 times a
minute, although this rate can
double during exercise or at times
of extreme emotion.
Blood is pumped out from the
left chambers of the heart. It is
transported through arteries of
ever-decreasing size, finally
reaching the capillaries in all the
tissues, such as the skin and other
body organs. Having delivered its
oxygen and nutrients and having
collected waste products, blood is
brought back to the right
chambers of the heart through a
system of ever-enlarging veins.
During the circulation through
the liver, waste products are
removed.
This remarkable system is
vulnerable to breakdown and
assault from a variety of factors,
many of which can be prevented
and treated. Risk factors will be
explored on pages 24–43.
Deaths from cardiovascular diseases (CVD)
Number of deaths globally per year
from different types of CVD,
by age
Highest numbers shown
2002
1 868 339
coronary heart disease
stroke
other cardiovascular diseases
hypertensive heart disease
inflammatory heart disease
rheumatic heart disease
996 183
280 819
104 116
66 542
0–4 years
5–14
15–29
30–44
45–59
60–69
70–79
80+ years
Other cardiovascular diseases
Tumours of the heart; vascular tumours of the
brain; disorders of heart muscle
(cardiomyopathy); heart valve diseases;
disorders of the lining of the heart.
Global deaths from CVD
millions
2002
total deaths: 16.7 million
inflammatory
heart disease
0.4m
hypertensive
heart disease
rheumatic
heart disease
0.3m
other forms of
heart disease
0.9m
stroke
2.4m
5.5m
coronary heart disease
18
Stroke
Strokes are caused by disruption of the blood supply to the
brain. This may result from either blockage (ischaemic
stroke) or rupture of a blood vessel (haemorrhagic stroke).
Coron
Risk factors High blood pressure, atrial fibrillation (a heart
ar
disea y heart
Coronary heart disease
se ki
rhythm disorder), high blood cholesterol, tobacco use,
lls
more
Disease of the blood vessels
than
unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, diabetes,
7 mil
li
supplying the heart muscle.
each on people
and advancing age.
ye
Major risk factors High blood pressure,
strok ar, and
es k
nearl
high blood cholesterol, tobacco use,
y 6 m ill
ill
Most
unhealthy diet, physical inactivity,
of th ion.
ese
d
eaths
diabetes, advancing age, inherited
a
devel re in
(genetic) disposition.
o
count ping
ries.
Other risk factors Poverty, low educational
status, poor mental health (depression),
inflammation and blood clotting disorders.
Aortic aneurysm and
dissection
Rheumatic heart disease
Dilatation and rupture
Damage to the heart muscle and heart
of the aorta.
valves from rheumatic fever, caused by
Risk factors Advancing age, longstreptococcal bacteria.
standing high blood pressure,
Marfan syndrome,
Congenital heart disease
congenital heart disorders,
Malformations of heart structures
syphilis, and other
existing at birth may be caused by
infectious and
genetic factors or by adverse
inflammatory
exposures during gestation.
disorders.
Examples are holes in the
heart, abnormal valves,
and abnormal heart
chambers.
Risk factors
Maternal alcohol
use, medicines
(for example
thalidomide, warfarin) used by the expectant
Peripheral arterial disease
mother, maternal infections such as rubella,
Disease of the arteries
poor maternal nutrition (low intake of folate),
supplying the arms and legs.
close blood relationship between parents
Risk factors As for
(consanguinity).
coronary heart disease.
7.2m
Other factors that can damage
the heart and blood vessel system
Inflammation, drugs, high blood pressure,
unhealthy diet, trauma, toxins and alcohol.
Deep venous thrombosis (DVT)
and pulmonary embolism
Blood clots in the leg veins,
which can dislodge and move to the
heart and lungs.
Risk factors Surgery, obesity, cancer,
previous episode of DVT, recent
childbirth, use of oral contraceptive and
hormone replacement therapy, long
periods of immobility,
for example while travelling, high
homocysteine levels in the blood.
19