The problem of diagnosing cardiovascular diseases for modern medicine is very acute. Every year, such diseases claim hundreds of thousands of lives around the planet. If the pathology is detected in time and measures are taken to eliminate or correct it, the risks for a person will be significantly lower. What methods and approaches are used to assess a person's condition, if one can assume an unhe althy heart and blood vessels? Let's take a look in general terms.
General information
If there is reason to believe that a person's heart is unhe althy or there are problems with the vascular system, a comprehensive diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases is necessary. Such a measure will help prevent a sudden stroke, heart attack or aneurysm, identify the diagnosis in time and recommend a treatment program to the patient. Evenif a person refuses a therapeutic course, he will be aware of the dangers that threaten him and how the situation can be changed.
It is necessary to go through all the diagnostic measures recommended by the doctor if the listed pathologies have already been experienced, if high blood pressure is concerned. Diagnostics is needed to determine and select therapy for heart failure, failures of cardiac rhythm, conduction, and contractility. In recent years, angina pectoris, diseases of the veins, arteries of the extremities are increasingly being detected. In order to identify them in time, it is necessary to resort to effective diagnostic approaches.
Relevance of the issue
To understand why it is so important for physicians to develop new, more effective approaches to diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, one should first consider what kind of organs they are, how they are significant for human life, and how dangerous the diseases that affect them are. The heart and blood vessels are a complex of organs responsible for the flow of blood in the body. With this fluid, oxygen molecules and nutritional components, microelements, which are indispensable for the life of cellular structures, are transported through the body. High-quality blood flow allows you to evenly distribute useful compounds throughout the internal systems. Only then can a person be he althy. If cardiac functionality is impaired, pathologies arise that negatively affect the vascular system, severe pathological conditions can form that reduce the quality of life or are associated with a risk of death.
It can be assumed that it is necessary to visit a doctor for a detailed diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases if you are worried about shortness of breath or pain localized near the heart. Typical symptoms of pathologies of this system include frequent pulse, high blood pressure. Timely detection of the diagnosis with the subsequent selection of adequate treatment is the best way to exclude dangerous complications.
What is available to doctors?
There are instrumental and laboratory diagnostics for diseases of the cardiovascular system. The first category belongs to the electrocardiogram. The study is abbreviated as an ECG. Such an event is basic and primary in case of suspected heart disease or vascular damage. A patient with the symptoms described above is immediately sent for an electrocardiogram. The study is necessary even in the case when there are no specific phenomena, but a preventive examination makes it possible to suspect an unhe althy heart. Sometimes an event is prescribed if the patient turned to the doctors because of an unrelated heart disease, but the doctor believes that it could affect the functioning of a vital organ.
An ECG gives doctors a detailed picture of heart rate and regularity. Based on the results, arrhythmia is determined, how much blood enters the heart muscle, whether these volumes are enough to ensure its normal performance.
Monitoring
Some time ago, the scientist Holter proposed a research methodology,soon proved to be one of the most effective and giving an accurate picture of the patient's condition. This is an instrumental diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, requiring long-term monitoring of the activity of the heart muscle. The event lasts at least a day. Sometimes the patient is prescribed a three-day continuous check. This method allows you to analyze the state of a person as deeply as possible. If coronary disease occurs, all its episodes are recorded. With arrhythmia, observation allows you to clarify the nuances of the course.
Research using Holter technology involves the application of electrodes to the chest of the person in need. They are attached to a special small apparatus, which the patient wears on his belt for the entire period of the study. The unit is attached with a small belt. Sometimes fastened on the shoulder. This method of diagnosing diseases of the cardiovascular system gives an accurate picture of all the changes during the studied time period. Whatever the processes taking place in the heart muscle, the unit will record everything that happens. The entire duration of the procedure, the patient is required to keep a diary of actions. It captures what is happening. The doctor's task is to compare the results given by the equipment and the patient's diary. Based on them, cardiac activity and the ability to resist stress are evaluated.
Pressure: long-term monitoring
Another modern method for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases is to check the readings of blood pressure in the arterial bed during the day. The event involves an analysis of the state of the circulatorysystems. As a result, the doctor has an accurate idea of the variability of pressure parameters. The dependence of changes on the normal daily activity of a person is revealed. The need for such a study was established by revealing that a one-time check of the indicators does not give a qualitative idea of the performance of the vessels. Objective conclusions and an accurate diagnosis are possible only if the doctor knows how the pressure changes, how much it depends on the time of day, the patient's activity, and the performance of any actions.
For the entire period of the examination, a special cuff connected to the tonometer is attached to the patient's arm. The unit automatically activates with half-hour pauses, checks the data and writes the results to memory. Daily totals give 48 pairs of numbers. Such indicators are taken not only during wakefulness, but also when the person under study is sleeping.
Treadmill test
Diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases in children and adults is possible through this effective and reliable method. The doctor uses special devices to obtain a cardiogram at a time when a person is physically active. The patient is given a special load, precisely adjusted to his condition. Usually they use a treadmill, along which the patient walks measuredly. The results of the study give an idea of the body's ability to withstand physical stress. The treadmill test reflects how the heart and blood vessels change their activity during human exercise.
ECHO-KG
Echocardiogram representsis such a modern method of functional diagnostics of cardiovascular diseases, in which the doctor receives the main useful data through the use of ultrasound equipment. The event helps to show how the ability of the heart to be an active pump is preserved. Scanning with a special device provides data on the structure of the fibers that form the main muscle of the body. If the heart valves are transformed or cannot function normally, an ECHO-KG will give a clear reflection of this fact. Based on the results of the study, the doctor will know what the contractility of the organ as a whole is, how large the heart cavities are, whether the thickness of the walls present in the structure of the organ is large.
ECHO-KG is a modern and reliable, safe method that gives an accurate idea of the presence of an aortic aneurysm, thrombus, tumor process. Through this approach, it is possible to diagnose hypertension, ischemia, heart defects.
Special case: children get sick
As studies have shown, the heart and vascular system in childhood have several distinctive features compared to those inherent in an adult. The heart of a barely born child is much larger in percentage terms in comparison with the body than an adult. The organ is actively increasing, by the age of three it becomes approximately three times larger than at the time of birth, and after another three years it will be 11 times larger than the original size. The specifics of the regulation of internal processes, local metabolismsuch that a child's heart beats faster than an adult's. The pulse of a newly born normal is about 150 beats, for a one-year-old the standard is 140, for a five-year-old it is 100, and by adolescence it reaches that inherent in adults, that is, about 80 muscle contractions.
The specificity of instrumental, laboratory diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases in childhood is associated with the frequency of occurrence of various diseases. So, in children, congenital malformations, rheumatic fever and tachycardia are more often diagnosed. There is a possibility of increased or decreased arterial vascular pressure. Quite often, arrhythmia is diagnosed.
New methods
Radiation diagnostics of diseases of the cardiovascular system is one of the most promising approaches for the early diagnosis of pathologies of the heart and blood vessels. In recent years, such methodologies have become an extremely important part of the diagnostic complex practiced in advanced hospitals. With the help of specialized devices, it is possible to detect structural corrections of the heart muscle in time. However, it was not without problems. Structural, functional, geometric corrections of the heart muscle, left cardiac ventricle, accompanying pathologies of the heart and blood vessels have not yet been investigated to the desired extent. Typological features due to the pathological condition have not been studied either.
Radial methods include radiography, X-ray television research, EHOCG, Doppler echo-KG. Additionally, non-invasive radiation methods and ECHOCG are practiced, in which special contrast agents are injected into a vein. ATin some cases, radiocardiography, scintigraphy are indicated. CT and MRI may be helpful. Coronary and angiocardiography belong to invasive methods. Angiopulmonography, ventriculography, and aortography are three more in-demand approaches practiced in X-ray departments as part of diagnosing pathologies of the heart and blood vessels.
Read more: Radiography
The main instrumental methods for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases currently include radiography. The event is organized in three classic projections: straight, side, left or right oblique. As statistical studies show, among other approaches to clarifying the diagnosis, this one is one of the most frequently practiced. Since the event gives an idea of the pattern of the lungs and their roots, the doctor can analyze the dynamics of the blood, limit venous congestion. One can estimate how big the heart is, what its configuration is. An x-ray examination determines the calcification of the heart valves, arteries that feed the organ, and the pericardium. You can immediately determine if there are lesions in other parts of the body that are similar in symptoms to diseases of the heart system.
X-ray analysis provides information about the functional symptoms of the condition. Complex beam inspection of the patient usually gives sufficient data even without slanting projections. The current classical approach is such that, first of all, they resort to the main instrumental method for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases - two-projectionradiography. Pictures are taken from the left side and front straight. In order to more accurately assess cardiac functionality, it is necessary to make a contrast esophagus in a lateral examination. On average, only 15% of patients require additional oblique examination.
Coronary angiography
This method of diagnosing diseases of the cardiovascular system allows you to assess how sick the arteries that feed the heart are. Through the thigh, the catheter is transported to the aorta, from there to the coronary vessel. A substance is injected that gives contrast in x-ray examination. Enough three milliliters of medicine. This approach allows you to objectively localize the narrowing of the vascular lumen, determine the progress of the process and the duration of the pathological area. The doctor receives information about collateral blood flow. In parallel, endovascular dilatation is allowed.
This method of diagnosing diseases of the cardiovascular system is used if the likelihood of complications in a non-invasive study is assessed as high. It is necessary to resort to this approach if clinical observations show cardiac ischemia without symptoms or allow one to suspect such a disease. Measures are indicated if drugs are ineffective in angina pectoris, if this pathology has formed in an unstable variant, is not corrected by drugs, was preceded by a heart attack, impaired functionality of the left ventricle.
Aortography
This type of cardiovascular disease diagnosis is indicated when the doctor needs accurate information about the condition of the aorta. It's an x-rayapproach involving the use of contrast compounds. The introduction of the Seldinger technology is mainly shown. The event is recommended if the aortic valve does not work actively enough, the aortic defect is complex. If the vessel develops atypically, the method gives an idea of the course of the process. With vascular lesions, aortography helps to formulate an accurate diagnosis and separate the case from others with similar manifestations.
This method of diagnosing cardiovascular diseases is indicated if you need to assess the state of the vascular system. It is recommended to resort to it when clinical observations and Doppler cardiography results do not allow making an unambiguous conclusion. If the diagnosis is in doubt, this approach is used to clarify the disease.
Angiocardiography
When choosing a treatment, the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases in this way is indicated if it is necessary to study not only the heart, but also the large vascular elements that feed it. Use a probe inserted through the arteries, veins in the periphery. If you need to study the organ in the right half, a puncture of the femoral or brachial vein is shown on the right, if on the left - on the opposite side of the body. This method of assessing the patient's condition gives an accurate idea of the content of various gases in the blood, helps to clarify the pressure indicators not only in the vessels, but also in the heart cavity. The doctor will have accurate data on volumes per minute, ejection. They record phono-, electrocardiograms, determine in which direction the blood is discharged.
In the framework of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, various methods of examining the condition using catheters are used very often, since they allow the introduction of substances into the circulatory system that are contrasting in the study of x-rays. Angiocardiography will not be an exception, in which a small quality of special compounds is poured into the patient's body through a catheter, helping to take a series of accurate radiographs.
Not just tools: lab tests
The relevance of laboratory diagnostics of cardiovascular diseases cannot be underestimated. Research activities require the patient's blood from a vein. In order for the result to be accurate, they refuse alcohol for a day. Children under one year of age should not eat in the 40 minutes preceding blood sampling. Children under five years of age should abstain from food for three hours. Older people need a twelve-hour fast. You can drink water without gas and additives. For a day they refuse medicines, for half an hour - from physical activity. It is necessary to exclude emotional experience. No smoking half an hour before the event.
Laboratory diagnostics in diseases of the cardiovascular system involves a comprehensive study aimed at identifying several key indicators of organ performance. Based on the results of clinical screening, the doctor will know how many erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets are in the circulatory system, what are their characteristics. The data helps to determine stroke, heart attack, ischemia, inflammation, anemia. Identification of the fatty profile of the blood gives an idea of the deviations of the metabolism in the body. Based on the results of the analysis, the doctor will assess how high the risk of atherosclerosis is.
Some indicators
When examining blood, the doctor will pay attention to the content of cholesterol. This cyclic alcohol is necessary for the human body, but the increased content of some of its types is associated with the risk of heart and vascular diseases. Cholesterol does not dissolve in water, it moves in the circulatory system with lipoproteins. The definition of a general indicator is necessary to assess how likely atherosclerosis is, how much a person is threatened by cardiac ischemia, whether there are problems with fat metabolism.
When evaluating the screening, the doctor will pay attention to the concentration of C-reactive protein. This connection reflects the presence of an inflammatory focus. It is essential for the inflammatory response cascade. A high level of a substance indicates the likelihood of hypertension, heart attack, stroke. Elevated rates are a signal of possible unpredictable cardiac death. In addition, such a result of the study may be one of the manifestations of the second type of diabetic disease and atherosclerosis that affected the peripheral vascular system.
Laboratory examinations: why and why?
The results of blood screening give an idea of the state of the vascular system, the heart. They are useful in a comprehensive assessment of the condition and the choice of a therapeutic course. Analyzes regularly carried out during the course of treatment reflect how appropriate the selected course is.case, what is the progress of the patient. If there are manifestations of diseases, suspicions of illness, blood screening simplifies the diagnosis, helps to confirm or refute the doctor's assumptions. Laboratory examinations are an element of preventive measures aimed at preventing and early detection of pathologies of the heart and blood vessels. If the patient is hospitalized, a blood test must be done without fail.
The reasons that provoke an increase or decrease in the concentration of compounds relative to the norm are different. In each individual case, the doctor individually determines what provoked the violation. The task of a specialist is to evaluate the results of screening in isolation, then superimpose them on the results of other instrumental and laboratory examinations. Only after that the final diagnosis is formulated.
