Heart disease in disguise

Today, very often we find in the mass media cases of sudden death that befell the artist or public figure. Common story we hear is the death that comes on suddenly or within a few hours, whereas previously there was never any complaints.

Facing sudden death like that, usually heart disease is a disease that most often blamed as the cause. This is actually logical since the failure of the heart pumps the blood can cause death quickly. The heart has the function of providing a constant flow of blood throughout the body to maintain the life of the body's tissues. If this fails cardiac function, blood flow can be greatly reduced resulting in body tissues become damaged. If tissue damage occurs very rapidly and widely, more quickly than the ability of tissue healing, tissue damage is fatal.

The majority of sudden death due to cardiac disorders (sudden cardiac death) occurred in those who previously had been suffering from heart disease. The problem is that many people do not know he suffered from heart disease to sudden severe complaints arise. Some heart disease does have a tendency to deteriorate rapidly.

Coronary heart disease for example, can suffer severe acute attacks. Heart valve disease may suddenly experience obstacles blood flow out of the heart. Diseases of heart failure can be a sudden onset of rhythm disorders that hinder the ability of pumping a sufficient body needs.

Cause
There are two main things that are important in understanding cardiac function in meeting the needs of the body's metabolism, namely rhythm (frequency) pulse and heart pumps. Both of these functions if it is disturbed and happen quickly, death may soon occur.

The sudden deterioration may be a rhythm disturbance that is too slow (less than 40 beats per minute) or too fast more than 170 beats per minute). Both types of rhythm disturbance is not compatible with normal life. Pulse is too slow of course not able to meet the needs of the body. On the other hand; beats too quickly is usually not well coordinated and it will inhibit the entry of blood into the heart, and the most dangerous is to remove the heart pump function. In most cases of sudden death, beats too fast this is what happened. Conditions resulting from disruption of this rhythm is the reduced amount of blood flow out of the heart to flow throughout the body.

Other causes of rapid deterioration is a decrease in heart pumping capacity by weight, for example in the case of a heart attack. Sudden heart attack caused by blockage of coronary blood flow causes a decrease in the supply of nutrients to the heart muscle. The loss or reduction in coronary blood flow can quickly cause damage to heart muscle.

Extensive damage to the heart muscle (more than 40 percent of heart muscle mass) can significantly reduce the heart's ability to pump blood around the body with the consequent reduction in blood supply to various organs of the body. As mentioned earlier, the damage not only to the heart muscle, but also occurs throughout the body that ultimately are fatal. In addition to a sudden decrease in heart pumping capacity, severe heart attack is often accompanied by complications of impaired rapid rhythm of pulsations as mentioned above.

Prevention
For those who do not have a history of heart disease, screening or screening the presence or absence of heart abnormalities needs to be done on a regular basis eg every year. In general, screening is a series of tests to discover the presence of cardiac abnormalities, such as doctor's exam, lab, x-rays, and others. Screening is also expected to identify risk factors for heart disease, such as diabetes, elevated levels of cholesterol, and high blood pressure. If abnormalities are found, treatment can be done immediately.

Complaints or symptoms of heart problems need to be recognized early. This is especially important given that most delays in the handling of emergency room patients with known heart failure caused the symptoms. Complaints of heart attack for example, by a layman is often regarded as "cold", "mag", or "wind sit", so people do not immediately seek treatment quickly and accurately. Not infrequently patients with heart attacks to come to the hospital after treating yourself with how scraped home. A survey conducted in hospitals. Dr. Hasan Sadikin Bandung suggests 83 percent of delays in treatment of heart attacks occur outside hospital and 84 percent due to wrong perceptions about the complaints of a heart attack.

For those who have heart disease, the regularity of treatment is needed to prevent recurrence of disease. Moreover, the risk for heart attack is higher in those who had suffered from heart disease compared to those not yet have heart disease. Several types of heart medications should be taken for life even with no other intent to prevent recurrence.

Despite suffering from heart disease, often patients do not immediately recognize the potential cardiac abnormalities complaints harm. Therefore, knowledge, vigilance, and suspicion of cardiac abnormality complaint is the most important in preventing sudden death from heart disease. *** [dr. JANUAR WIBAWA MARTHA, Sp.PD., Sp.J.P. | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 29092011]