Heart Disease
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
INTRODUCTION
In today's society, people are gaining medical knowledge at quite a fast pace. Treatments, cures, and vaccines for various diseases and disorders are being developed constantly, and yet, coronary heart disease remains the number one killer in the world.
The media today concentrates intensely on drug and alcohol abuse, homicides, AIDS and so on. What a lot of people are not realizing is that coronary heart disease actually accounts for about 80% of all sudden deaths. In fact, the number of deaths from heart disease approximately equals to the number of deaths from cancer, accidents, chronic lung disease, pneumonia and influenza, and others, COMBINED.
One of the symptoms of coronary heart disease is angina pectoris. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not take it seriously, and thus not realizing that it may lead to other complications, and even death.
THE HUMAN HEART
In order to understand angina, one must know about our own heart. The human heart is a powerful muscle in the body which is worked the hardest. A double pump system, the heart consists of two pumps side by side, which pump blood to all parts of the body. Its steady beating maintains the flow of blood through the body day and night, year after year, non-stop from birth until death.
The heart is a hollow, muscular organ slightly bigger than a person's clenched fist. It is located in the centre of the chest, under the breastbone above the sternum, but it is slanted slightly to the left, giving people the impression that their heart is on the left side of their chest.
The heart is divided into two halves, which are further divided into four chambers: the left atrium and ventricle, and the right atrium and ventricle. Each chamber on one side is separated from the other by a valve, and it is the closure of these valves that produce the "lubb-dubb" sound so familiar to us. (see Fig. 1 - The Structure of the Heart)
Like any other organs in our body, the heart needs a supply of blood and oxygen, and coronary arteries supply them. There are two main coronary arteries, the left coronary artery, and the right coronary artery. They branch off the main artery of the body, the aorta. The right coronary artery circles the right side and goes to the back of the heart. The left coronary artery further divides into the left circumflex and the left anterior descending...