Types of Human muscle tissues | skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles

Structure of skeletal muscle | how muscle is
attached to the bone by means of tendons

There are three general types of muscle tissues:

• Skeletal muscle responsible for movement
• Cardiac muscle responsible for pumping blood
• Smooth muscle responsible for sustained contractions in the blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, and other areas in the body

Skeletal and cardiac muscles are called striated muscle because of their striped appearance under a microscope, which is due to the highly organized alternating pattern of A band and I band.

Heart muscles - Cardiac Muscle - Myocardium

Muscles have tendency to contract and relax.. Muscles are responsible for every movement of the body... it becomes smaller when contracts and larger when relaxes.

Types of Muscles and Cardiac muscles

Types of Muscles in Human Body
Cardiac muscle cells , Skeletal Muscle
cells and smooth Muscle cell. Heart
is made up of Cardiac Muscles.

There are three types of muscles. Skeletal muscle cells, smooth Muscle cells and Cardiac Muscle cells.

Dilated cardiomyopathy - Heart muscle disease

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle disease in which heart becomes weak and enlarge and can not pump blood efficiently. Dilated Cardiomyopathy is abbreviated as DCM.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy can effect the Lungs, Liver and other systems of the body.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases that effects the heart muscles (Myocardium). Different cardiomyopathies have different causes and effect different parts of the body..

As the name of the disease tells that in this disease a part of the myo-cardium (myo-Muscles, cardium-heart) is dilated..

Dilated Cardiomyopathy | Enlarged Heart

Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common form of the non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. it is more common in men then women..and between the age of 20-60 years..Dilated cardiomyopathy also occurs in children. About one in three cause of Congestive Heart Failure is Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Left Coronary artery | arteries of the heart

The left coronary artery (LCA) arises from the aorta above the left cusp of the aortic valve. it is also known as the left main coronary artery (LMCA).

Right Coronary artery | arteries of the heart

Right coronary artery | arteries of the heart Diagram.
in the above diagram label number 2 is right coronary
artery,these arteries supply blood and oxygen to the
heart muscles

Arteries of the heart

like other Organs and muscles, muscles of heart also need blood and oxygen to survive. the arteries that supplies blood to the heart muscles are called as coronary arteries. these are of two types. Right coronary artery and left coronary artery.

Ischemic heart disease | Myocardial ischemia | symptoms, causes, and treatment

Ischemic Heart Disease or Myocardial Ischemia is a disease in which chest pain occurs when a part of the heart does not receive enough blood. Ischemic heart disease is a common heart problem. Ischemic heart disease is common in the United States and is a leading cause of death worldwide. This condition occurs most often during exertion or excitement, when the heart requires greater blood flow.

Ischemic heart disease (IHD)

It develops when cholesterol particles in the blood begin to accumulate on the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Also known as Coronary Arteries Disease (CAD). Eventually, deposits called plaques may form. These deposits narrow the arteries and eventually block the flow of blood. This decrease in blood flow reduces the amount of oxygen supplied to the heart muscle.

Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease

Cyanotic congenital heart disease

cyanotic means appearance of blue or purple color in the skin or mucous, this is due to the de-oxygenated blood in the skin tissues. Congenital means by birth and it is a Heart Disease. In Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease there may be more than one defect.

cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease

Types of Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease

Caynotic Heart Disease is divided into two main types

Coronary Arteries - Vessels of the Heart

Coronary arteries:

heart receives blood from a group of arteries called as coronary arteries. these are thin arteries that supplies pure blood to the heart muscles.

they contain pure blood.
these are

1: Right coronary artery RCA

(it is divided into two branches Right marginal artery and
posterior descending arteryLAD)

and

2: Left coronary artery

(it is divided into two branches circumflex arteryand
left anterior descending arteryLAD)

coronary arteries arise from the aorta cloase the point where aorta and the left ventricle meet.

Thick heart muscle | Hypertrophic

Thick heart muscle is the other name of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM).
Thickening of the heart muscle called as Idiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic Stenosis (IHSS),
Asymmetric Septal Hypertrophy (ASH) or
Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy (HOCM).

thickening of heart muscle

CAUSE OF HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHHY

It is caused by various problems. High blood pressure is most common cause of thick heart muscle which may causes stiffning of heart and Irregular heart Rythem. It is inherited heart disease meaning that it transfers inside the family from parents to the children. Genetic factor is also involved in it. It is considered that several genes that controls for the growth of the heart muscle are responsible for this heart disease.
Thick heart muscle disease makes heart muscles to get harder and efficiency to pump blood is reduced.
In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy one side of the heart (either left or right) is thicker than the other. It is more severe in younger people but condition of this disease is seen in people of all age.

Cause,symptom and treatment of ischemic cardiomyopathy

Cause of ischemic cardiomyopathy is due to the blockage of artery that bring blood and oxygen to the heart. Because of this reason heart muscle tissues do not get sufficient oxygen and person suffers from ischemica. The blockage may b due to thickening of arteries by cholesterol or by plaque. Plaque is a blood clot.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy is the common cause of congestive heart failure. Person suffering from ischemic cardiomyopathy may once had or have heart attack, angina or unstable angina. Very few of them may not have had heart attack, angina and unstable angina

Causes and Risks of Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

Use of more fats and cholesterol containing food

High Blood pressure can also lead to ischemic cardiomyopathy

Long time Smoking

Diabetes and Obesity are also the Risks and causes of Ischemic Heart Disease.

Heart failure.

Acute circulatory failure is at one end of the spectrum of possible manifestation of cardiac failure. The other manifestations are less dramatic, but can be responsible for a great deal of ill health. The common factor in all forms of cardiac failure is the inability of the heart to produce an output sufficient for the needs of the patient. In the mildest forms of heart failure, heart output is adequate at rest and becomes inadequate only during exercise. Inmost patient, however, it is possible to detect at least some features of cardiac failure and of the complex haemodybanic, endocrine and renal compensatory mechanisms it evokes even when the pathent is examined at rest. The successful management of cardiac failure depends both on an accurate diagnosis of its cause.

Treatment of cardiomyopathy (Heart Muscle Disease)

When the Cause of Heart Muscle Disease (dilated cardiomyopathy) is known, therapy is aimed at treatment of the underlying disorder, such as a curable infection or nutritional deficiency.

For example, in the case of Heart Muscle Disease Caused by Alcohol consumption, treatment entails total abstinence. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is one of the few for which there exists a specific treatment, and patients with this type of Heart Muscle Disease have a good prognosis if they follow the prescribed treatment.

Because in most cases the cause of dilated cardiomyopathy is unknown, treatment focuses on relieving the symptoms and improving the function of the injured heart chambers.

Patients receive medications that enhance the contraction capacity of the heart muscle. The few drugs that produce this effect work indirectly, by increasing the level of calcium inside the heart cells. (Calcium initiates heart muscle contractions.) Digitalis and its derivatives such as digoxin (Lanoxin and others), the oldest and bestknown of such drugs, are usually administered orally but may, in some circumstances, be given by an intravenous injection.

More potent cardiac stimulants such as dobutamine (Dobutrex), dopamine (Intropin), and amrinone (Inocor), can be given only intravenously and are therefore primarily reserved for use in the hospital in more serious situations.

Oral forms of such medications are currently being developed. Diuretics are prescribed to relieve lung congestion and remove excess body fluid. Commonly referred to as "water pills", they facilitate the kidney's excretion of excess salt and fluid into the urine. While these drugs, which reduce congestion and swelling, are an essential part of heart failure therapy, patients can help the physician decrease the dosages of diuretics by limiting the amount of salt in their diet.

Function of the impaired heart can be significantly improved by altering the conditions under which it must work. Because the body responds to heart failure by constricting blood flow to all but the most vital organs, drugs that dilate blood vessels (vasodilators) reduce the work of the heart by decreasing resistance to bloodflow.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, a class of vasodilators, are particularly effective in heart failure treatment. In the presence of an active inflammation in the heart (usually confirmed by heart biopsy), anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids (cortisone) may be prescribed.

Although these medications have been extensively studied, it has not been proved whether they benefit patients with newly diagnosed dilated cardiomyopathy. In the early, acute stages of cardiomyopathy, when signs of heart inflammation and ongoing muscle injury are present, patients are told to rest. With covery from acute illness, they are advised to engage in regular physical activity to the extent that their heart function permits.

In extreme cases, when cardiomyopathy has progressed to the point when medical treatment can no longer relieve the symptoms, a heart transplant may be considered. Transplants increase life expectancy in persons with advanced heart failure who might otherwise be expected to live less than six months.

Currently, 80 to 90 percent of heart transplant recipients survive at least one year, and more than 75 percent survive five years. The scarcity of donor organs and the high level of sophisticated care required for a successful transplant make this option available only to a small number of patients-approximately 2,000 per year in the United States.

Diagnosis of Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Dilated cardiomyopathy can b diagnosed by several ways. Inmost cases, dilated cardiomyopathy is preceded by Heart Muscle Inflammation that produces flulike symptoms such as fever, chills, and muscle aches.

These symptoms are so common and vague that the cardiomyopathy is usually not diagnosed until heart muscle injury has caused impaired heart function and produced symptoms of heart failure.
Diagnosis is based on assessing the size and function of the heart chambers.

X-ray diagnosis is done by taking a chest X-ray typically reveals the main features of dilated cardiomyopathy:
An enlarged heart and fluid congestion in the lungs.
An electrocardiogram may show evidence of heart damage.

Characteristic abnormalities can also be detected using echocardiography or radionuclide angiography, often called the MUGA scan (equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiogram).

If diagnosis remains in doubt, heart catheterization, sometimes accompanied by a Heart Biopsy, may be performed. Catheterization allows a physician to measure pressures in the heart chambers and to see the heart's structures when a contrast dye is injected into its chambers and vessels through the catheter a thin plastic tube that is inserted in an artery or vein and threaded through it to the heart.

During the procedure, X-ray images of the heart are recorded on film or videotape.

In biopsy, a small sample of tissue is removed from the heart wall and examined under a light or electron microscope. The combined findings of catheterization and heart biopsy usually make it possible to distinguish dilated cardiomyopathy from other forms of heart disease.

Tests may also be used to rule out recognized causes of dilated cardiomyopathy. In most cases no cause can be established. However, blood tests, for example, may sometimes show that the patient has had a recent viral infection known to be associated with cardiomyopathy.

Cause of cardiovascular disease-Cardiomyopathy

PERIPARTUM CARDIOMYOPATHY

For an unknown reason, cardiomyopathy sometimes develops in connection with pregnancy and is referred to as peripartum (peri meaning around or at the time of, partum meaning labor or childbirth) cardiomyopathy. During the last month of pregnancy or within several months following delivery, the woman develops heart muscle inflammation that appears to be unrelated to any infection or other known causes.

The condition may result in severe and irreversible heart failure, although many patients recover completely. Women who survive the illness are at a high risk of developing this type of heart muscle disease at subsequent pregnancues. Peripartum cardiomyopathy occurs with particularly high frequency in African- American women in the United States and is a common cause of heart failure among women of Cardiomyopathy can also be caused by severe nu-childbearing age in some African countries.

Nutritional Abnormalities of Cardiomyopathy.

Cardiomyopathy can also be caused by severe nutritional deficiency (which can also be related to alcohol use). The heart muscle, like any other muscle, can be damaged by chronic deficiency in certain vitamins, particularly vitamin B-1, or in minerals. In developing countries heart muscle disease is more common than artery cardiomyopaty. Which is predominent heart disease in United State.

Genetic Disorders

Dilated cardiomyopathy is known to develop in lated cardiomyopathy is more common than coro- patients with some genetic disorders that affect the nary artery disease, the predominant form of heart muscles or nerves of the back, arms, and legs. (Such disease in the United States. diseases include progressive muscular dystrophy, myotonic muscular dystrophy, and Friedreich's ataxia.)

There are also cases when dilated cardiomyopathy is not associated with muscle disorders but appears to be genetic in origin because several members of the same family are affected. However, because no abnormal gene has been identified, it is uncertain whether clustering of this condition within some families results from genetic or environmental factors.

Cause of heart muscle Disease

ALCOHOL

Alcohol is the cause of heart muscle disease. It is mostly used in Western countries. In Western countries, excessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of cardiomyopathy.

Alcohol can damage the heart directly by exerting a toxic effect on heart muscle cells.

Severe heart damage may also result from nutritional deficiencies that occur when alcohol is the person's main source of caloric intake.

In some drinkers, alcohol primarily attacks the liver, causing cirrhosis, and in others, mainly the heart, but severe damage usually does not occur in both organs at the same time.

Alcoholic cardiomyopathy can develop after five to ten years of excessive alcohol use. Examples of excessive amounts are two thirds of a pint of whiskey or gin, one quart of wine, or two quarts of beer daily, although individual susceptibility to and tolerance of alcohol varies greatly.

Most patients with this type of
cardiomyopathy are males, possibly are more heavy drinkers among men than women.

Heart muscles inflammation myocarditis

Heart Muscle Inflammation( myocarditis ) is the Most cases of dilated heart muscle diseases ( dilated cardiomyopathy ). But not all the cases of cardiomyopathy are because of heart muscles inflamation. In fact, myocardits is often categorized as Heart muscle disease. Myocarditis most often occurs vomplication of a viral disease, but it is a rare complication. Viral infections are believed to cause indirect damage to the heart. The invading virus provokes proteins that are confined within the heart muscle cells to become exposed to the bloodstream. This sets of inflammatory process as the body mistakenly assumes these newly exposed proteins belong to foreign cells and attacks them in the same way it fights viruses and bacteria. The unfortunate result in the inflammation and injury to the body's own tissues (in case of myocardits, the muscles of heart.).

Inflammation of  Heart Muscle

Many organisms can infect the heart muscles. Coxsackle-B a virus that usually infect the gastrointestinal track and is believed to be most offending agent. Many other viruses such as polio, influenza and rubella have been associated with myocarditis.

Myocarditis can occur as a rare complication of bacterial infections, including diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and tetanus. Other infectious organisms such as rickettsiae and parasites, may also cause inflammation in the heart muscles.

In central and south america Chagas(infectious illnes transmited by insects) is considered as the cause of myocarditis. Myocarditis can occur as a rare complication of bacterial infections, including diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and tetanus. Other infectious organisms, such as rickettsiae and parasites, may also cause inflammation in the heart muscle. In Central and South America, myocarditis is often due to Chagas

disease, an infectious illness that is transmitted by insects. Noninfectious causes of myocarditis are numerous, but all of them are rare. They include systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease in which the body attacks its own organs and tissues; adverse or toxic drug reactions; and radiation-induced heart injury as a complication of cancer radiotherapy. Often myocarditis, particularly in its mild form, produces no symptoms at ail.

Heart Muscle Inflammation

However, it is frequently accompanied by an inflammation of the heart's outer membrane-the pericardium. Inflammation of the heart lining is called pericarditis and, unlike myocarditis, can cause severe pain that typically gets worse when the person takes a deep breath or changes position. Myocarditis may start as a flulike illness that lingers longer than the usual several days. If significant muscle damage and weakening of the heart’s chambers occur, symptoms of heart failure may develop. A month or two later, the symptoms of flu-weakness and malaise—merge with symptoms of heart failure—fatigue during physical activity and shortness of breath. If the illness is persistent and progressive, symptoms eventually become disabling enough for the person to consult a physician. By this time, however, the infecting organisms usually cannot be detected or cultured from the heart or other places in the body.

By the time the patient seeks medical help, all traces of the infecting organism or disease process that may have triggered the condition may be undetectable.

In some cases, the injury to the heart muscle is mild but persists or recurs intermittently over many years. Symptoms of heart failure sometimes appear 20 to 30 years after the initial viral illness. Patients usually do not recall having had a viral infection and often mistakenly interpret the symptoms as a sign of age until progressive heart disease produces more obvious signs of congestion and heart failure. Myocarditis is usually diagnosed after it has reached an advanced stage and produces heart failure.

Physical examination and a chest X-ray usually reveal signs of lung congestion and heart enlargement. An electrocardiogram may show changes of heart damage, and an echocardiogram demonstrates the characteristic abnormalities of severe myocarditis enlargement of all heart chambers and poor contraction of the heart muscle. In acute myocarditis, a heart biopsy, in which a small sample of muscle tissue is removed from the heart chamber for laboratory examination, may be performed to document the presence of an ongoing inflammatory process.

In cases of infectious myocarditis, however, it is usually impossible to grow the infecting organism from samples of the heart tissue. Mild cases of myocarditis with no signs of heart failure are usually not diagnosed and consequently remain untreated. When treatment is given, it is aimed at eliminating the underlying cause. When the cause is unknown, steroids (cortisone) are sometimes rescribed to reduce inflammation. (This approach to therapy has not yet been shown to be beneficial but is currently under study.)

Medications are also prescribed to relieve the symptoms of heart failure. During the acute phase of myocarditis, patients are advised to rest and gradually return to a more active life-style once evidence disappears of ongoing inflammation and heart injury. Many cases of myocarditis cause minimal heart damage. Heart function fully recovers in these mild cases. Occasionally, severe cases of myocarditis also clear up spontaneously and leave little permanent damage. More typically, however, severe inflammation produces chronic, progressive, and irreversible heart damage. Left untreated, myocarditis may lead to a severe form of pulmonary edema, or lung congestion, in which fluid leaks from the blood into the tissues and air spaces of the lung. The onset of this can be quite rapid, often waking the patient from sleep. Such patients are severely disabled and require emergency treatment. It must be emphasized, however, that myocarditis is rare and that viral infections rarely result in heart muscle damage.