Heart Diseases

Me, Dr. Manish Mittal, Cardiologist at Sarvodaya Hospital and Heart Center at Ghaziabad. Also practicing at my clinic: Dr. Mittal's Echo Medical Center at Patel Nagar, Ghaziabad. Today I will talk about heart diseases. Most commonly the coronary artery heart disease. It is the biggest cause of death. Coronary artery heart disease is due to the blockage of vessels supplying blood to the heart. Due to this heart cannot get the proper blood supply that leads to the symptoms in the form of chest pain, dyspnea on exertion.

And when these vessels are completely blocked, the patient has the acute heart attack. These patients can land up in a lot many complications like heart failure, sudden cardiac arrest. So, it is very important from the patient perspective to identify these symptoms. Go for the emergency medical attention. To diagnose, ECG is very important. Necessary tests are mandatory to initiate the medical management. The most important investigation is electrocardiogram.

In case of acute heart attack, patient should be admitted in the emergency of the hospital under a cardiologist and initial treatment should be started as soon as possible. The main treatment is to open the blood vessels as early as possible. The early we initiate the treatment, the better is the prognosis. The main treatment in these cases is either from thrombosis or angioplasty. Besides that, the patient is started with the other medications.

Like anti-platelet drugs and other specific cardiac maintenance to cut down the complications associated with the heart attack. In those cases, who are not the case of a heart attack but they feel chest pain or breathlessness, so these are the cases of chronic stable angina who have the problem of blockage in their blood vessels which are unable to meet the supply of the heart muscles. So, they feel symptoms during the increased workload in the form of exercises, climbing stairs.

 So, in these cases, they should contact a cardiologist who can recognize their symptoms and can do ECG, echo stress test and if required coronary angiography to understand the underlying coronary problems. And advice the patient either for the medical management, angioplasty or bypass surgery. Besides, the coronary artery heart diseases, other diseases that we encounter in our day to day practice is the patient with heart failure i.e. the weakness of heart muscles. Patient with the disease where blood vessels supply blood to the systemic circulation or pulmonary circulation.

So, these have to be diagnosed as per their symptoms and clinical findings. In last, I would say, if you feel any of these symptoms like chest pain, breathlessness, fatigue, weakness, swelling of the legs, dizziness, loss of consciousness, consult your cardiologist for the proper evaluation of the symptoms. So, that he/she can diagnose the underlying conditions as early as possible and advise you for the further management. In last, I would like to say, if you want to consult me directly by coming to my clinic or the hospital or via Lybrate.