Endocarditis is a cardiac condition caused by an infection of the inner lining of the heart. It is generally caused by a bacterium and can affect the heart valves as well as the heart lining. As it is a potentially life threatening problem, treatment of endocarditis requires long term intravenous antibiotics and maybe even open…
Coagulation is the process by which a liquid changes to a semi-solid mass or a gel. When a cut occurs on our body with bleeding, with a little pressure and bandaging of the wound bleedings stop. Here clotting factors in the blood become active and change the liquid blood into a gel (clot). When the…
Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) are a class of anticoagulants which, as their name indicates act by inhibiting the action of vitamin K, coumarins are the most commonly used VKA. In medicine the most commonly used VKA is warfarin. Warfarin is an antagonist of Vitamin K, a necessary element in the synthesis of clotting factors II,…
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder causing pauses in respiration during sleep, and each episode results in missing of one or more breaths, and such apneas occur recurrently throughout sleep period. The respiratory control mechanism is less effective during sleep and brief periods of apnea occur in normal sleeping adults. During sleep there is decreased…
The Hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS) is a heart condition when the right hand side of the heart is less developed than the left one. In fact, the right hand side of the heart is not strong enough to perform all the heart functions smoothly. Causes The most common cause that results in this syndrome…
Statins are a class of medicines used frequently to lower the blood cholesterol levels. The drug is able to block the action of a chemical in the Liver, essential for producing cholesterol. Cholesterol, the soft and waxy stuff, is needed for normal cell and body functions. However, very high level of the same may lead…
Mitral Regurgitation is one of the most critical native valve diseases, growing globally. Patients with symptoms, or poor tolerance requires surgical mitral valve repair treatment. This in fact is the advanced version of percutaneous cardiac therapy which expands from percutaneous coronary and peripheral intervention to percutaneous valve intervention. Procedure It has been found the surgical…
A tilt-table test is meant to assess the heart rhythm of those patients who often undergo fainting spells. It is as simple, inexpensive, and low risk procedure. However, the test is not recommended to those patients with a tendency to faint due to heart disease. Orthostatic Hypotension is a problem of comparatively recent origin. Hence…
The term Embolism is derived from the Greek word embolos which means ‘stopper’ or ‘plug’. Embolism is a condition in which an object called embolus created in some part of the body, travels through out the body and blocks blood flowing through a vessel in another part of the body. An embolus is a clot…
What is Rheumatic Fever? Rheumatic fever is inflammation of the body’s organ systems, mainly joints, skin, brain and the heart.The fever mostly develops two or three weeks after the streptococcal infection of the throat. It is so named because of its similarities with Rheumatic disorder (medical conditions affecting the joints and connective tissue). How does…