Heart disease: expert describes and explained

While we are all familiar with the term “heart disease”, we really use it as an umbrella term for a number of problems related to the heart. We will look at some of the common heart conditions that can occur.

What we tend to be most familiar with is either when the arteries serving the heart – the coronary arteries – are partially blocked, which causes angina (chest pain), or if they become completely blocked (a heart attack). ‘Doctors call this type of heart problem ischaemic heart disease – ischaemia means lack of oxygen due to decreased blood flow– and it’s essentially a matter of “plumbing”,’ says Dr Klaus Witte, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, Leeds General Infirmary and Spire Leeds Hospital.

In many cases though, heart problems are caused by electrical faults in the system that controls the heart beat – causing abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias, which can cause the heart to beat too fast (tachycardia), too slow (bradycardia) or irregularly. Symptoms include palpitations (awareness of your heart beat), dizziness, breathlessness and (rarely) feeling faint or actually fainting. Below is a guide to what can go wrong – and what can be done about it.

• Atrial fibrillation (AF)

The most common arrhythmia happens when the heart’s electrical activity becomes uncoordinated. People over 50 and those with existing heart disease, or heart valve disease, are most at risk. AF is a leading cause of stroke.

• Ventricular tachycardia (VT)

Caused by a fault in the electrical system in the lower chambers of the heart, making the heart beat too fast to pump sufficient blood to the brain. It is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death, and it needs urgent treatment. People with heart disease and those who have inherited certain genes are most at risk.

• Cardiomyopathy

‘Cardiomyopathy is a fairly rare heart muscle problem which happens when the heart becomes weakened or thickened,’ explains Dr Witte. There are several different types, but dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when the heart muscle stretches and thins, is the most common. As the heart weakens it is less able to pump blood and maintain a normal rhythm, which can lead to breathlessness, arrhythmias, heart valve problems, blood clots in the heart and eventually, to heart failure.

One to two per cent of people with an apparent heart attack are in fact suffering a form of cardiomyopathy – stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome – temporary heart failure brought on by extreme stress. Researchers from London’s Imperial College have recently found that this is a result of the body’s changed response to the stress hormone, adrenaline. Most people will make a full recovery within days or weeks.

Snoring could be a possible indication of heart disease and reduced sexual urge.

Experts warn that in addition to depriving people of their sleep, causing daytime drowsiness and a lack of focus, snoring should not be treated as a mere bedtime annoyance because it may be an early indication of heart related diseases.

Snoring occurs when the flow of air through the mouth and nose is physically obstructed during sleep. This may result from a cold, an allergy, body weight, the anatomy of one’s mouth and sinuses, or alcohol consumption. Though snoring can occur in anyone, including children, it is interesting to note that it occurs more in men than women.

Getting a diagnosis

Until fairly recently arrhythmias have been tricky to diagnose because they don’t happen to order, making them difficult to catch on an ECG. However, diagnosis has been revolutionised by loop recorders, or reveal devices. These little removable devices the size of a USB stick are inserted under the skin and can be set to record a bout of arrhythmia if you feel one, or kick in automatically if your heart rate exceeds or falls below a certain number of beats per minute.

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