Hypertrophy of the heart muscle
Cardiac hypertrophy is a sign that accompanies many disease conditions, and is not a disease in itself. Myocardial hypertrophy may get temporary or permanent, depending on the underlying cause. This is usually observed by chest x-rays, showing the heart at a larger size than normal, and by a well-known diagnostic method called the Danzer method, and further tests are needed to determine the cause of the enlarged heart, for a variety of reasons that may result , Such as hypertension and coronary heart disease.
The most common type of cardiomyopathy is enlarged myocardial infarction, which expands the entire heart muscle and becomes less thick. It also becomes weaker. It is usually followed by congestive heart failure and its associated symptoms.
The other type is known as hypertensive myocardial infarction. The left ventricle of the heart, which is responsible for performing the most important functions of the heart, increases the stress of pumping blood to all parts of the body when the heart loads an extra effort. The muscle cells enlarge as a result of this extra effort, Exercise. This extra effort comes from several conditions, such as long-term hypertension, myocardial infarction, or heart valve abnormalities. Despite this inflation, the efficiency of heart pumping is much lower than the healthy heart.
Occurrence of hypertensive cardiomyopathy may occur temporarily and does not indicate satisfactory conditions, such as what happens in pregnancy or athletes, and this type of hypertrophy of the heart part genetically in some cases.
Causes of enlarged heart
In some cases it may not be possible to determine the cause of heart enlargement, because many are unknown. Known causes of heart enlargement either as a result of loading more than the capacity, or to damage the tissue, and these reasons are as follows:
- Congenital malformation: Some children are born with hearts larger than normal size.
- Suffering from hypertension: It results in hypertensive myocardial infarction, which forces the left ventricle muscle to pump more to deliver blood to various parts of the body.
- Myocardial infarction: called heart attack, occurs when the blood supply cut the heart muscle, causing the death of the tissues.
- Suffering from arrhythmias.
- Heart valve failure: It can be caused by many causes, such as rheumatic fever, aggressive heart attack, or as a result of radiotherapy or chemotherapy of cancer.
- Suffering from pulmonary hypertension: which causes the right ventricle of the heart to be inflamed. As it is responsible for delivering the blood to the lungs, the high blood pressure inside them exposes an overload on the right ventricle, forcing it to work more than it causes enlargement.
- Less common causes of heart enlargement: Chronic or severe forms of heart disease, such as anemia, thyroid dysfunction, high iron intake, excess alcohol intake, cocaine abuse, chronic kidney disease, or HIV infection.
Symptoms of heart enlargement
Cardiac hypertrophy is a symptom, not a disease, because it arises from many pathological conditions. The patient may not experience any symptoms of heart enlargement, but may occur when the heart can not pump properly. The patient may suffer from shortness of breath or swelling of the legs. , Or the feeling of heart palpitations, or fatigue constantly, and then the patient suffering from congestive heart failure. Some patients feel the same symptoms for a long time without change in severity, and some of them worsen with the passage of time.
Treatment of heart enlargement
Cardiac hypertrophy is diagnosed initially by discussing the symptoms and history of the disease with the doctor, and by performing a clinical examination, after which some tests are done, such as a chest x-ray, electrocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart or a heart image. To perform cardiac catheterization to take a biopsy of the heart tissue. These tests are done to determine the cause of heart enlargement, so inflation can not be eliminated without treatment for the cause.
Many of the drugs given to people with heart disease are designed to improve the performance of the heart and relieve the effort. The most prominent of these drugs are diuretics, anti-angiotensin-converting drugs, which work to reduce blood pressure, as well as drugs inhibiting beta receptors, As well as anticoagulants.
If the drugs do not work in the treatment of heart enlargement, some other procedures may be used to eliminate the main cause of inflation, then surgery may be performed to repair the heart valve, open heart surgery or heart transplant, which is recommended in case of heart hypertrophy Accompanied by severe shortness of the heart muscle.
One of the most commonly used medical procedures in the case of enlarged myocardial infarction is the installation of the so-called artificial pacemaker, which regulates the contractions between the right and left ventricles of the heart. Left ventricular assistors, which may be placed permanently or temporarily until a heart transplant is performed, are the last option to solve the problem.