Disease of the heart muscle is called Cardiomyopathy. It is a medical term cardio means-Heart, myopathy means-muscle disease.Heart muscle disease ( cardiomyopathy ) compare to cardiovascular diseases are relatively rare. In UK heart muscle diseases cases are about 50,000 and cardiovascular diseases or heart strokes are about 500,000 per year. Cardiomyopathy commonly occurs in young and can have a brief course or period.
Cardiomyopathy refers to a group of disorders that directly damage the muscle of heart walls. This disorder damages all chambers of the heart. The heart's function as pumping the blood is disrupted and it leads to inadequate blood flow to tissues and organs. Multiple heart attacks can also lead to several damages to heart and disrupting blood supply to the heart muscles. These disrupts can cause functional impairment or structural abnormalities which are found in other types of heart muscle diseases. These types of heart diseases that are caused by coronary artery is called ischemic cardiomyopathy.
Cause of HEart Muscle Disease
Dilated congestive cardiomyopathy
This is most common heart muscles disease it is also called as either dilated or congestive cardiomyopathy. This disease damages the fibers of the heart muscles and weakens the wall of heart and affects all chambers of heart and they can not perform their normal function in circulatory system. To compensate for the muscles injury, the heart chamber enlarge or dilate this dilation is more in left ventricle which is main pumping chamber of the heart.
Dilated cardiomyopathy causes heart failure and inability of heart to provide an adequate supply of the blood to organs and tissues. Which if left untreated leads to retention, congestion in lungs and liver and swelling of the legs. Fluid retention occurs during heart failure because many organs fail to receive sufficient supply of blood.
Kidney respond to this lack of blood supply by retaining more that the usual amount of water and salt. With time excess amount of fluid retention leads to congestion in lungs and other organs. At the end of the day much of the retained fluid gravitates to the lower portions of the body and causes swelling in the legs.
Dilated cardiomyopathy causes heart failure and inability of heart to provide an adequate supply of the blood to organs and tissues. Which if left untreated leads to retention, congestion in lungs and liver and swelling of the legs. Fluid retention occurs during heart failure because many organs fail to receive sufficient supply of blood.
Kidney respond to this lack of blood supply by retaining more that the usual amount of water and salt. With time excess amount of fluid retention leads to congestion in lungs and other organs. At the end of the day much of the retained fluid gravitates to the lower portions of the body and causes swelling in the legs.
The course of Dilated Cardiomyopathy
When the heart chamber dilate, the muscle fiber of the heart wall stretch, enabling them to contract more forcefully. If the injury to the heart muscle fiber is relatively mild, new muscle growth and the process of fiber stretching, which occur roughly in the proportion to the muscle damage, can restore normal function of the heart. When injury is severe the heart function deteriorates.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease) steady leads to the inability to perform normal function of heart. Most patients go through periods of relatively stable function of heart that may last for several months or years. However the majority eventually succumb to complication of the disease. Most commonly they die of Heart failure that is amenable to treatment, although some die suddenly or unexpectedly.
Most of sudden deaths are believed to result from ventricular fibrillation (a fast and irregular heart rhythm). Patients with cardiomyopathy are at risk of sudden death because the underlying disease process disrupts the normal electrical pathway of heart possibly cause rhythm disturbances. Sometime death may occur because of a blood clot that dislodges from one of the heart chamber and travels to any other vital organ of the body such as brain or lungs and can block the supply of blood.
Most of sudden deaths are believed to result from ventricular fibrillation (a fast and irregular heart rhythm). Patients with cardiomyopathy are at risk of sudden death because the underlying disease process disrupts the normal electrical pathway of heart possibly cause rhythm disturbances. Sometime death may occur because of a blood clot that dislodges from one of the heart chamber and travels to any other vital organ of the body such as brain or lungs and can block the supply of blood.
Symptoms and causes of Dilated Cardiomyopathy
The symptoms of dilated heart muscle disease are that of congestive heart failure. In more than 80% of cases the cause of the dilated cardiomyopathy is unknown. Major causes of heart muscle diseases are inflammation in the heart muscles (myocarditis), excessive alcohol use, poor nutrition, and rarely, peripartum and genetic disorders.