Diseases of the cardiovascular system rank first in the world among other pathologies of the human body, leading to death. Every year, about 17 million people die from heart and vascular diseases, which is 30% of the total number of deaths. Sometimes cardiovascular pathologies are congenital, but for the most part they arise as a result of stressful situations or an unhe althy lifestyle. A harbinger of the occurrence of diseases are spasmodic conditions of the circulatory system. What is a spasm of the coronary vessels, symptoms and methods of diagnosing the disease? The reader will find answers to all these questions in the article.
Cardiovascular system
The cardiovascular system is a collection of organs that provide blood flow in the human body. Blood delivers oxygen and nutrients to all tissues, while simultaneously removing themwaste products. The human cardiovascular system consists of the heart and blood vessels. The heart is an organ that anatomically is a hollow muscle and forces blood to constantly circulate through blood vessels - hollow tubes of different sections. It consists of four chambers - the right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, left ventricle, separated by partitions. The heart wall includes three muscle layers: internal - endocardium; middle layer - myocardium; the outer connecting layer is the epicardium.
The vessels of the circulatory system include arteries, arterioles, precapillaries, capillaries, postcapillaries, veins. The farther from the heart, the smaller the vessels. The arteries move blood from the heart to the tissues of the body, the veins - in the opposite direction.
The vessels that carry oxygenated blood to the myocardium are the coronary arteries. Accordingly, coronary circulation is the flow of blood through the blood vessels of the myocardium. Simultaneously with the blood, additional nutrition of the tissues is provided by the lymphatic system. It should be noted that the work of the circulatory system is very clear, strictly coordinated.
Vaspasm: what is it
Medical directory has a great variety of cardiovascular diseases. And often the formation of various pathological conditions, such as the formation of cholesterol plaques or the occurrence of vasospasm, lead to more serious disorders in the body, that is, to the development of serious diseases - atherosclerosis, angina pectoris, coronary heart disease (CHD).
Angiospasm isshort-term contraction of the walls of blood vessels and an increase in their tone, due to narrowing of the lumen in the muscle cavity.
At the same time, blood is collected in some areas, while others do not receive sufficient nutrition. There is a violation of oxygen enrichment of body tissues. Usually the vascular spasm does not last long up to 20 minutes. However, there are cases when violations in the work of the vascular system take a protracted character. Spasms cause severe pathology - vascular crisis - a change in the filling of blood vessels against the background of impaired central circulation. Spasms affect both large and small blood vessels.
Smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, recurrent stress, excessive alcohol consumption, increased platelet activity - a combination of these factors causes the onset of a spasmodic syndrome, this is its main cause. Spasms of the coronary vessels can occur in various areas of the human body, so they are usually classified.
Types of spasms
Depending on where the spasmodic process is localized, they distinguish:
- peripheral spasms;
- spasms of the main arteries.
Peripheral spasms - vasospasms - pathological conditions that occur locally, for example, in the vessels of the upper or lower extremities due to physical fatigue, sudden changes in climate, changes in the rhythm of life. The occurrence of peripheral spasms is caused by a violation of the tone of the capillaries of the skin. affected areaat first it turns pale, then it acquires a blue tint, numbness of the extremities, itching occurs. Sometimes a person experiences excessive sweating. Symptoms may be aggravated by hypothermia. Sometimes when rubbing the affected area, the patient may experience pain.
Spasms of the main arteries affect large blood vessels that feed the human brain, heart muscle, and the body as a whole. In accordance with this, allocate:
- spasm of coronary vessels;
- cerebral angiospasm.
Spasm of the heart vessels - coronary spasm - is a short, but very sharp sudden reduction in the lumen of the inner wall of the coronary arteries. Cerebral angiospasm is a spasm of the main blood vessels that feed the human brain.
What causes a spasm of the coronary vessels of the heart
Symptoms of coronary spasm begin with chest pain radiating to the shoulder blade or arm. The nature of the attacks is different. Pain can occur at night, at rest or during the day, against the background of increased physical activity. Pain in the region of the heart is explained by the fact that during the spasmodic process, the coronary vessels that feed the heart muscle are damaged. Unfortunately, the appearance of attacks of pain is a harbinger of the development of angina pectoris - heart disease. Among the causes of the development of the disease:
- Atherosclerosis is the formation of cholesterol deposits on the walls of blood vessels, leading to a narrowing of the diameter of the cross section of the blood tunnels through which blood circulates. AtAtherosclerosis reduces the elasticity of blood vessels, they become fragile. A spasmodic process occurs when the lumen of the coronary arteries narrows by half. The more vessels affected by pathology, the stronger the attack.
- Infectious diseases.
- Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Allergy.
The causes of angina pectoris can be conditionally combined into two groups:
- reasons that can be corrected;
- fatal causes.
In the power of a person to get rid of smoking, taking specific medications; bring your physical form back to normal; increase vitality; keep blood pressure under control; not succumb to psycho-emotional stress. Unfortunately, a person is not able to influence his own heredity and age.
Forms of angina pectoris
Angina pectoris can manifest itself in different ways, according to this, the disease is classified into several forms:
- angina pectoris;
- stable angina;
- rest angina.
Angina pectoris is formed on the background of physical or emotional stress. These factors lead to the fact that the heart muscle requires more activity in metabolic processes. This form of angina pectoris is characterized by pain in the retrosternal region.
Stable angina is a form in which the spasmodic process can last more than a month. It is divided into four subspecies depending on the degreephysical activity and stress, against the background of which an attack occurs.
Rest angina occurs at night, when the human body is in a state of rest. Attacks of this form of the disease are intense, long enough. The pain may slowly increase, and then quickly disappear. In this case, a person often experiences nausea, dizziness. There are also states of rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath. Compared to other forms of the disease, resting angina is less likely to cause serious consequences or death.
Cerebral angiospasm
Cerebral angiospasm is a spasmodic process that affects the vessels that feed the brain. The most likely causes of cerebral spasm are frequent overwork of the body, lack of sleep, osteochondrosis. The disease mostly occurs in middle-aged people - over thirty years old and is manifested by moderate or severe headache in the back of the head, forehead, temples. Together with pain, jumps in blood pressure may occur. The symptoms that characterize the spasm of the coronary vessels of the brain are very obvious. These include:
- impaired speech;
- disorientation;
- dizziness, nausea;
- memory lapses.
The above symptoms are the result of insufficient blood supply to the brain, which occurs against the background, for example, of cervical osteochondrosis. For diagnostic purposes andto prevent the development of serious pathologies associated with spasmodic manifestations in the vessels of the neck or head, one should resort to magnetic resonance imaging of the head, as well as ultrasound examination of the neck.
Diagnosis, treatment, prevention
Diseases of the cardiovascular system are quite insidious and often lead to serious consequences or death of the patient. Therefore, it is very important to recognize the signs of the disease in the early stages and start treatment as soon as possible. The task of a medical worker is not to miss any trifles; listen carefully to the patient's complaint; establish the nature of the pain, its location, duration, circumstances under which it arose.
Laboratory diagnostics must be carried out without fail - a blood test for cholesterol, lipoproteins. Other diagnostic methods include:
- An electrocardiogram (ECG) taken at the peak of an attack.
- Monitoring of daily ECG parameters.
- Echocardiogram.
- Bicycle ergometry is a test that allows you to determine the maximum load that a patient can withstand.
- Diagnostic coronary angiography - assessment of the degree of damage to the arteries and their localization.
The above diagnostic methods make it possible to distinguish vasospasm from other diseases, and prescribe timely, correct and sufficient treatment.
