Heartbeat-Ni :: Medical Definitions
Pulmonary Hypertension – secondary
Tight lung vessels with an identifiable cause (see Eisenmenger's). Secondary pulmonary hypertension can be reversible if detected early in the process, and appropriate treatment started.
Pulmonary Hypertension – primary
A condition where the lung vessels have high resistance to blood flow (or are "tight"), for no identifiable reason.
Pulmonary hypertension is usually treated with oxygen or vasodilating medications such as calcium channel blockers, nitrates, prostacyclin, or others that directly or indirectly relax blood vessels.
Occasionally, an experimental procedure to create a small opening in the atrial septum using a balloon dilation catheter is performed in the cardiac catheterization lab, to allow the high pressure in the right (blue) side of the heart to decompress to the left (pink) side of the circulation.
This maintains cardiac output because more blood can be pumped out to the body, but since this extra blood is deoxygenated (unable to go through the lungs), this comes at the expense of increased cyanosis.
This procedure is only done in people who are severely ill and awaiting lung transplant. For cases of severe, irreversible pulmonary hypertension, lung transplantation is currently the only treatment.
Polycythemia
Literally, excess red blood cells in the bloodstream, which may be due to chronic cyanosis among other reasons.
People with Eisenmenger's are almost always polycythemic unless they are iron-deficient. Polycythemia can be a problem because the blood is literally very thick, and may cause a stroke or other obstruction elsewhere in the circulation.
Obstructive Airway Disease
In pediatrics, obstuctive airway disease usually refers to an anatomic obstruction in the air passages proper.
Examples include foreign bodies, very large tonsils/adenoids, tracheal/bronchial stenoses/webs/rings. In older people, the most common cause is smoking
Hemoptysis
Literally, blood in the respiratory tract secretions (coughing up blood). Hemoptysis is usually caused by very high pressures in the venous (right sided) circulation (such as in Eisenmenger's), resulting in the breakage of smaller blood vessels supplying the lungs. It can vary from trace to life-threatening amounts.
Dextrocardia
Term meaning literally, "heart on the right". Used to describe patients who, for a variety of reasons, have their hearts predominantly in the right chest rather than the left.
Dextrocardia can be associated in some cases with a normal heart.
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition in which the heart's function as a pump is inadequate to meet the body's needs.
A poor blood supply resulting from congestive heart failure may cause the body's organ systems to fail, leading to a weakened heart muscle and fluid accumulation in the lungs and body tissue.
There are many diseases that can impair pumping efficiency and symptoms of congestive heart failure include fatigue, diminished exercise capacity, shortness of breath, and swelling. Treatments include lifestyle modifications, medications, heart transplant, and therapy.
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)
Congenital heart disease (CHD) describes the presence of a cardiac anomaly from birth. Some of these anomalies will have been diagnosed prior to delivery by ante-natal scans, but many will present at, or after birth. CHD covers a wide spectrum from small ventricular septal defects (VSD) which may be totally asymptomatic and compatible with a normal life span, to more severe forms such as Fallot’s tetralogy. Routine screening of all infants, and regular screening of small children in the UK and other developed countries has ensured that the majority of children with significant disease are diagnosed at a very early stage. Murmurs heard in the first week to months of life are more likely to be due to CHD than those picked up in later childhood years.
1 Murmurs may not appear until an infant has been discharged from hospital however, as the pulmonary vascular resistance changes with the closure of the ductus arteriosus e.g. a child with a VSD may not be apparent for the first 24 hours, and a child with a hypoplastic left heart may appear healthy until the ductus closes.
2 Many defects are possible, but most defects either obstruct flow of blood in the heart or in vessels near to it or cause blood to take an abnormal route through the heart. More rarely only one ventricle may be present, or the right or left side of the heart has failed to form properly (hypoplastic heart)
Arteriovenous Malformations (AVMs)
Abnormal connections between the arteries and the veins. Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations are located in the lung, allowing blue blood to pass through the lungs without becoming oxygen-rich.
In congenital heart disease patients, they may be seen following modifications of the Glenn shunt, hemi-Fontan, Kawashima or Fontan procedures. Systemic arteriovenous malformations may occur in any organ and cause congestive heart failure.
They typically occur in the abdomen or in the brain.
Accessory Connection
An abnormal (accessory) connection of electrical tissue from the upper chambers of the heart (atria) to the lower chambers (ventricles).
Abnormal conduction of electrical impulses through the accessory connection can result in very rapid heart rates; also called "reentrant supraventricular tachycardia".