Diseases of the heart

Diseases of the heart: Cardiopathies

1. Majorities
2. Signs and symptoms
3. Types, classification
4. Methods of diagnosis

1. Cardiopathy only means: diseases of the heart.
In general all cardiac disease produces cardiac insufficiency:
What indicates the cardiac insufficiency? It is a situation in which the heart is ?insufficient? to make the functions that characterize it, that is to say, to provide with a suitable sanguineous irrigation to the different organs from the body. Numerous diseases of the heart can lead, in advanced stages, to a cardiac insufficiency.
The equalizers that the organism activates allow to the patient with a cardiac insufficiency to remain without symptoms nor clinical manifestation during months or years.
The cardiac insufficiency is a severe disease, with high indices of mortality to few years of its evolution.

2. The symptoms of cardiac insufficiency must mainly to the congestión of the pulmonary glasses and to the diminution of the sanguineous flow that drives the heart. The equalizers that the organism activates, as said, allowed that our mascot has not presented/displayed symptoms during a determined lapse of time, but later, the progressive appearance of symptoms will take place; we will begin to notice that our dog or cat presents/displays diminution to the tolerance to the exercise and cough, the insufficiency degree is evolving little by little, limiting progressively its normal unfolding, arriving at picture of cough still in the rest (mainly at night), ascites (it collects of I eliminate in abdominal cavity), hidrotorax, síncope etc? .
The cardiac insufficiency is a severe disease, with high indices of mortality to few years of its evolution.
The main symptom is the respiratory difficulty, disnea call. The disnea is the key symptom of the insufficiency cardiac; in fact, according to the disnea degree that presents/displays is extrapolated, partly, the degree of disfunción of the heart.

3. Generalizing and single to didactic aims we can group to the frequent cardiopathies but in Veterinary Medicine in the following groups:
* Miocardiopatías
* Cardipatía to valvular
* Gongénitas cardiopathies
* Filaria: Worm of the Heart

Miocardiopatías:
Thus the diseases of the own cardiac muscle are called, appear so much in dogs as in cats (but it frequents in canine). In this group of diseases the cardiac muscle is the one that is affected, taking to faults in the contraction of he himself, and therefore cardiac insufficiency because the heart this disabled person to bark suitably.
In general they are chronic diseases, insidiosas and of slow progression.
The etiología (cause) can primary (be not known: idiopática) or secondary to other sistémicas or metabolic diseases (endócrinas, nutricionales, toxics, infectious diseases, tumors).

Cardiopathy to valvular:
It is but prevalente and but clinically significant of all the diseases of the heart It mainly affects old dogs of small race - poodle, to cocker, maltés, yorkshire to terrier, chihuahuas-, are prearranged to undergo degenerative processes of the valves of the heart, although this can appear ahead in any race of dog of the six years in or cat (less frequent). Its incidence is greater in males than in females (1.5: 1).
The valves of the heart act like ?floodgates? that allow the passage of the blood of a compartment of the heart towards the other. The normal thing is that these ?floodgates? close perfectly well, so that the blood ?does not return? towards the previous compartment and causes a congestión of blood in that place. When the valves of the heart suffer of these degenerative processes, the capacity of closing of the same ones is altered, favoring that the blood returns and it becomes congested in some of the valves of the heart. This anomaly is doing that the heart begins to dilate in one or several of its cameras, altering of secondary way the capacity of contraction of the cardiac muscle. All this takes to a cardiac insufficiency, that if it is not diagnosed and treats in time can take to the death.
Not always the cause is degenerativas, are some situations in which they become inflamed or these important valves of the heart become infected. As much if they do not close well, allowing flights, as if they do not open absolutely obstructing the passage of the blood, the heart it undergoes much, it renders little and quickly it appears the cardiac insufficiency.

Congenital cardiopathy
In this last group the ?defects of manufacture? of the heart are included, with which some dogs or cats are born, are cardiovascular malformations that must to an anomaly in the embryonic development. They are little frequent, but when they appear they tend to develop a congestiva cardiac insufficiency of very fast evolution. Most frequent, and by this order, they are: the persistence of the arterioso conduit, the persistence of 4º aortic arc straight, the pulmonary estenosis and the aortic estenosis. Less frequent they are the auricular septales defects and ventricular, the tetralogía of Fallot and all the others are very rare.
In general, the cardiac congenital alterations produce several pathologies: The prognosis, as he is natural, in the congenital cardiac alterations is bad, mainly if they present/display congestiva cardiac insufficiency. The prognosis is good when it is the case of a persistence of the arterioso conduit and the surgery is made very quickly and the congestiva cardiac insufficiency has not been developed (ICC).

Worm of the Heart:
The call ?worm of the heart? is a parasite that lives within the heart on dogs and cats and its name is Filaria, and is trasmitido by certain species of mosquitos, reason why it is common to find it in the tropical and subtropical zones.
This parasitism is a cause of insufficiency cardiac and reason for a report aside.