Serious heart diseases: main symptoms and treatment

Serious heart diseases, also called serious heart diseases, occur when this organ begins to lose its functional capacity due to a congenital disorder. Serious heart diseases can be classified into:

• severe acute heart diseasewhich has a rapid evolution, leading to a sudden decrease in the functioning of the heart;

• severe chronic heart diseasewhich is characterized by the progressive loss of the functional capacity of the heart;

  
  
  

• severe terminal heart disease, in which the heart cannot adequately perform its functions, reducing the person’s life expectations. Normally, those who have severe terminal heart disease do not respond to treatment with drugs and are not candidates for surgery to correct the cardiac alteration, which is carried out in most cases of heart transplantation.

Severe heart disease can cause great disability in the patient’s personal and professional life, in addition to physical and emotional exhaustion. Congenital heart disease is one of the main types of severe heart disease and is characterized by a defect in the formation of the heart during pregnancy, which can lead to impairment of cardiac function.

Asimism, congestive heart failure, arterial hypertension, coronary insufficiency and complex arrhythmias are diseases that can be associated with severe heart disease or even worsen the condition, leading to severe terminal heart disease.

main symptoms

Symptoms related to severe heart disease depend on the degree of heart failure, which can be:

• Difficulty breathing;

• Dolores en el pecho;

• Fainting, disorientation or frequent drowsiness;

• Tiredness after small efforts;

• heart palpitations;

• Difficulty sleeping in bed;

• nocturnal tones;

• Hinchazón of the lower limbs.

Severe heart disease can cause major physical limitations, in the development of daily and work functions, depending on the type and severity of the illness associated with it.

The diagnosis of serious heart diseases is carried out by the cardiologist, through the evaluation of the clinical history of the person; as well as exams that allow the evaluation of cardiac function, such as an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram, both at rest and in motion, exercise or exercise testing, chest radiography and angiography, for example.

How is the treatment performed?

The treatment for serious heart diseases depends on the cause and determined by the cardiologist, and can be carried out through:

• Use of medications, most of the time intravenously;

• Intraaortic balloon placement;

• Surgery for correction of cardiac alteration.

In the most serious cases, the heart transplant can be recommended, which is more indicated in the case of people who have terminal serious heart diseases, due to the loss of cardiac function, the person’s life expectancy is compromised. Find out how the heart transplant is carried out and how the recovery is performed.