Teachable moment in classrooms:
- heart chapter – functional difference in the thickness of myocardium of atria and ventricle wall
- heart chapter – conduction system delivers nerve impulses to myocardium
- heart chapter — importance of stroke volume
- hemodynamics chapter – effects of angiotensin and ANP on blood pressure and volume
The news item: Recently the following news report appeared:
Advancement in heart failure medication helping patients at MercyOne
There are some medical issues that are an easy fix and then there are some that are more complex, like heart failure. For those with early signs of heart failure, an advancement in medication is making all the difference for patients at MercyOne…
The article discusses the new drug Entresto that moderates symptoms in heart failure patients. The patient interviewed for this article had Guillain-Barre syndrome that caused severe heart arrhythmia.
So, Why Do I Care?? Heart failure indicates a malfunctioning of one of the most important organ in the body. Over 6 million people in the USA have heart failure, and it is listed as cause of 13% of all deaths. Heart failure results in worsening quality of life because of the inability to hold a job, inability to participate in social activities and in family life.
Plain English, Please!!! First let’s talk about what heart failure is. Most important to understand here is that heart failure doesn’t mean that the heart stops working. Heart failure means that the heart can not pump enough blood to maintain normal functions of all organs. Heart failure may start with moderately decreased ability and it may then progress to further loss of pumping to the point where life can not be maintained with very low level of pumping. Loss of pumping ability, the heart failure, may be the consequence of malfunctioning heart valves, arrhythmias (abnormal delivery of nerve impulses to the heart muscle), or the damage or thickening (hypertrophy) of the heart wall.
Second, let’s talk about why hypertrophy of the heart wall can lead to heart failure. While it is intuitive to picture why malfunctioning heart valves, or arrhythmias can cause heart failure, it is not that intuitive to see why thickening (hypertrophy) of the heart wall can be damaging. In most cases hypertrophy thickens