Coronary artery bypass graft

With coronary artery bypass surgery, the surgeon takes a vein from some part of the patient such as the leg. The tissue is then inserted into the aortas as it leaves the heart and the other end of the vein is joined to the coronary artery below the blockage.

Blood then flows from the aorta through the vein graft beyond the blockage to the coronary artery and to the heart muscle.

Sometimes, coronary bypass surgery needs to be repeated after about 10 years or so because the arteries become blocked again.

It is an open heart surgery in which the cardiovascular surgeon cuts through the sternum (breastbone) and exposes the heart.

The success of the surgery depends on the location and the amount of coronary artery disease, the time over which it has occurred and the blood vessels used for bypass.
Coronary artery bypass graft

Valves of the heart

The heart is located in then ventral cavity, inside the thoracic cavity. To pump blood efficiently the heart needs valves that ensure a predominantly one-way flow. Blood flows through the heart in one direction - from atria to the ventricle and out the great arteries - leaving the superior aspect of the heart. This one-way traffic is enforced by four heart valves.

The four main valves in the heart are:
The two atrioventricular (AV) valves, the mitral valve (bicuspid valve), and the tricuspid valve, which are between the upper atria and the lower ventricles.

The two semilunar (SL) valves, the aortic valve and the pulmonary valve, which are in the arteries leaving the heart.

Each atrioventricular valves consist of a flap of connective tissue that is covered on both sides by endocardium and is devoid of blood vessels. The atrial surface of the flap, is smooth, the chord tendineae arise from its free margins and inferior surface. The atrioventricular (AV) valves regulate the openings between the atria and ventricles, the right AV tricuspid vale has three cups and the left AV bicuspid have has two.

The valves of the pulmonary trunk and aorta each consist of three nearly equally sized valves the semilunar cusps, which are formed by folds of endocardium. The semilunar valves regulate the flow of blood form the ventricles onto the great arteries. Aortic and pulmonary valves are of very similar structure to atrioventricular valves, but they do nor possess chord tendineae.

The texture of valves is as smooth as silk, thus blood particles and bacteria do not adhere to them.
Valves of the heart

What is meant by blood pressure?

Human body needs the nutrients and oxygen from blood. Blood is pumped from the heart and it travels around the body delivering oxygen and nutrients to the organs of the body and returns to the heart ready to be pumped back out again.

Blood pressure is needed so that the blood can travel from heart to other organs and muscles.

An adult has around five liters of blood that circulates around the body approximately once every minute. Blood pressure is the force of the blood pushing against the walls of those arteries.

Each times the heart beats (about 60-70 times a minute at rest), it pumps out blood into the arteries. Blood pressure monitoring is an important indicator of a wearer’s cardiovascular status.

Many devices allow blood pressure to be measured by manual or digital sphygmomanometer systems that utilize an inflatable cuff applied to a person’s arm.

The blood pressure is at its greatest when the heart contracts and is pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure.

When the heart is at rest, in between beats, the blood pressure falls. This is the diastolic pressure.

When blood pressure stays too high for too long, it can damage the blood vessels. Organs such as kidneys, heart, brain and eyes can be affected.

High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for heart failure. It also increases the risk later for atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries.
What is meant by blood pressure?

What is arrhythmia?

Arrhythmias are defined as any cardiac rhythm other than the normal sinus rhythm.  It is a disturbance of the normal heart rhythm. Cardiac arrhythmias were first noted in antiquity, when physicians began to palpate the arterial pulse.

Hippocrates noted that a slow pulse in elderly men heralded sudden death, and Galen predicted the impending death of an apparently healthy physician who had observed that his pulse was irregular. From an electrocardiographic point of view, arrhythmias may be divided into two different types
*Active arrhythmias
*Passive arrhythmias

Normal resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats/min. A heartbeat that is too low or too fast can interfere with normal heart function and produce symptoms that can be minor or life threatening.

The incidence of the majority of arrhythmias increases with age progressively and arrhythmias are not frequent in children.

Patent may be asymptomatic or may experience the following:
*Fatigue, weakness
*Dizziness
*Light-headedness
*Fainting or near fainting
*Shortness or breadth.
What is arrhythmia?

Oatmeal for healthy heart

Oatmeal comes for the grain call oats – Avena sativa. Oatmeal has been eaten in Scotland and England for centuries, although in England, oats were mainly fed to horses.

In recent years, clinical studies have affirmed the ability of oatmeal and oat bran to reduce blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and generally reduce the long term risk of heart disease.

In recognition of these well-established benefits, in 1996 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted manufacturers/packagers of oatmeal the right to make specific health claim about this food, stating that diets high in oat meal or oat bran may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Oat meal is one of the best unrefined carbohydrates for maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and a healthy heart. It contains beta-glucan from soluble fiber. Beta-glucan is actually a type of polysaccharide. Beta –glucan helps lower cholesterol level and significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

In the intestines, soluble fiber forms a gellike mass that binds with bile and cholesterol, promoting their excretion from the body.

Because of this action, it has a potent cholesterol lowering effect, reducing both total cholesterol and LDLs.

According to the studies, one bowl of oatmeal can lower cholesterol levels between 8 and 23 percent in just three weeks.

Fiber plays an important dietary role in the prevention of coronary disease. A six-year study involving 22,000 middle-aged Finnish males showed that consuming as little as 3 g daily of soluble fiber (from the beta glucan fiber component of oats, barley or rye) reduce the risk of death from heart disease by 27%.
Oatmeal for healthy heart

Heart disease due to magnesium deficiency

Most modern heart disease is caused by magnesium deficiency. The diet of the industrial world is short on magnesium, and this causing an epidemic of heart disease in the modern world.

Human body loses magnesium from diarrhea, diet and stress. Diarrhea causes much of the magnesium in intestines to be excreted.

Magnesium deficiency can cause arrhythmia, prolonged of the QT interval or congestion heart failure and cardiac disease.

Heart is a muscle that pumps by constantly contracting and relaxing. Calcium helps heart and other muscle to contract. Magnesium helps them to relax.

Magnesium deficiency may result in the formation of clots in the heart and brain and may contribute to calcium deposits in the kidney, blood vessels and heart.

Magnesium deficiency may be the cause of idiopathic mitral valve prolapsed, a great valve disorder whose symptoms include palpitations, chest pain, fatique, panic attacks and hyperventilation.

Heart failure resulting from fibrillation and lesions in the small arteries is linked to a deficiency of magnesium, as its vasodilation, which can be followed by hyperkinetic behavior and fatal convulsions.

The researchers found that a magnesium deficiency cause of death from sudden heart attacks in 8 million people in US between 1940 and 1994.
Heart disease due to magnesium deficiency