Cardiac Symptoms – Recognizing the Signs

It is so important to recognize cardiac symptoms early on. Understanding and catching heart disease before it becomes an issue can be the key to heart disease prevention. Many forms of heart disease can be prevented or treated with healthy lifestyle choices. Developing healthy habits early on in life is a key component in treating the different types of heart disease. In this article, we cover cardiac symptoms and how to recognize what they represent.

Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is the buildup of plaque in your arteries and can damage the efficiency of your blood vessels and heart. Coronary artery disease develops when atherosclerosis narrows the arteries close to your heart. This aspect of heart disease can cause a heart attack or heart failure. Signs and symptoms can include the following.

cardiac symptoms: atherosclerosis

Gender is one of the symptoms that can affect Coronary artery disease. Additionally, many of the traditional signs and symptoms of heart disease are based on medical research largely performed in men. For example, men are more likely to experience chest pain, whereas women are more likely to experience shortness of breath, nausea, and extreme fatigue. Both men and women can experience chest pain, but women are more likely to experience atypical cardiac symptoms.

64% of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms.

Arrhythmias

Heart arrhythmias occur when the electrical impulses that coordinate your heartbeats don’t work properly, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. The signs and symptoms can include the following.

cardiac symptoms: arrhythmias

Although heart arrhythmias may be harmless, but some arrhythmias can cause life-threatening signs and symptoms. Therefore, it is important to talk to your doctor in order to treat and control your heart rhythm. Heart arrhythmia treatment can often control and eliminate fast, slow, or irregular heartbeats. Furthermore, you may be able to reduce your arrhythmia risk by adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Heart Defects

All of the chambers and valves in your heart work correctly when the blood is pumped through the heart, to the lungs for oxygen, back to the heart and out to the body for delivery of oxygen. Congenital heart defects are malformations that are present at birth. Some congenital heart defects cause no signs or symptoms and can occur later in life. Common congenital heart disease symptoms in adults include the following.

cardiac symptoms: heart defects

Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy refers to diseases of the heart muscle. In most cases, cardiomyopathy causes the heart muscle to become enlarged, thick or rigid. As the disease worsens, the heart weakens and becomes less able to pump blood throughout the body and incapable of maintaining a normal electrical rhythm. It can result in heart failure or arrhythmias. There may be no symptoms, but as the condition worsens, symptoms may include the following.

cardiac symptoms: cardiomyopathy

Some cases have no signs or symptoms and don’t require treatment. However, in other cases cardiomyopathy develops quickly with severe symptoms and requires treatment. Treatments include lifestyle changes, medications, and surgery. These treatments can control symptoms, reduce complications, and prevent the disease from worsening.

Endocarditis

Endocarditis is an infection caused by bacteria that enters the bloodstream and settles in the heart lining, a heart valve or a blood vessel. This infection affects the inner lining of your heart chambers and heart valves (endocardium). Heart infection signs and symptoms include the following.

cardiac symptoms: endocarditis

Infection can come from many sources, including poor dental hygiene, tooth brushing that causes minor injury to the lining of the mouth or gums, dental procedures, implanted cardiovascular medical devices, chronic skin disorders and infections, burns, infectious diseases and more.

Valve Heart Disease

The heart has four valves – the aortic, mitral, pulmonary and tricuspid valves – that open and close to direct blood flow through your heart. Many things can damage your heart valves, leading to narrowing (stenosis), leaking (regurgitation or insufficiency) or improper closing (prolapse). Depending on which valve isn’t working properly, valvular heart disease signs and symptoms generally include the following.

cardiac symptoms: valve heart disease

Heart valve disease can cause complications such as heart failure, stroke, blood clots, heart rhythm abnormalities, and death. It is crucial to maintain healthy lifestyle habits and get the proper treatment in a timely manner.

Early detection of heart disease can be the difference between life and death. Be sure to watch for cardiovascular symptoms and discuss your concerns with your doctor in order to catch it and treat it early.

The differences of cardiac symptoms you can experience are related to the type of heart disease you are suffering from. Coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack — each type of heart problem requires different treatment but may share similar warning signs. It is important to see your doctor so that you can receive a correct diagnosis and prompt treatment.

Learn to recognize the cardiac symptoms that may signal heart disease.

Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring

Wearing an ambulatory monitor is one of the best ways to identify potential heart complications or other heart related issues. It can detect abnormal heartbeats and other abnormal EKG changes that a standard EKG can miss. Standard EKG’s only record the heart’s electrical activity for a short period of time. A continuous ambulatory monitor is more likely to detect abnormalities that occur periodically because it is worn for 24 hours or more.

An ambulatory monitor can be used in the following instances.

The Massive Benefit to Holter Monitoring

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This idiom from Benjamin Franklin is as true today as it was in his time. Franklin may have been speaking of fire safety at the time, but the benefit of this thinking in the healthcare realm is priceless. A simple test can catch problems long before they become serious.

Holter Monitoring tests are easy, simple and an important part of preventative medicine. Throwing a holter on your patient can take minutes, and the benefit of catching arrhythmias and detecting issues early is worth every minute spent. However, how many ECG tests does a doctor actually do in a day? The answer is not many. The question is why? Holter is a benefit in so many ways, and easy preventative medicine. Each test provides a quick reimbursement, and with the ability to offload reporting, takes even less effort. There is a massive benefit to allowing a Holter test to work in the background, monitoring your patient while you continue to treat others.

ACS Diagnostics, Inc.

Know what is going on in your heart. If you have any arrhythmias or heart issues, contact us today. ACS Diagnostics can get you in touch with a Cardiologist, or get a remote test sent directly to your home. Don’t ignore your heart, take control today!