Hypertensive Heart Diseases
A common form of heart disease called hypertensive heart disease is a late complication of hypertension that affects the heart. It is the leading cause of death and illness from high blood pressure (hypertension).
Out of 1000 people, approximately 7 people are affected by hypertensive heart disease.
Cognitive heart failure is the major symptom of hypertensive heart disease. Its other symptoms are swelling of ankles and feet, bloating, strong and frequent urge to urinate at night, irregular pulse, difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath, nausea and palpitations. The patient may experience extreme tiredness or fatigue, weakness and may occasionally feel like fainting.
Ischemic heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are also the results of hypertensive heart disease. Symptoms of ischemic heart disease may include chest pain accompanied with nausea, dizziness, sweating, and shortness of breath, weakness and fatigue, irregular pulse, and chest pain traveling to the neck, jaw, back or arms.
Symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are heart palpitations, shortness of breadth, faintness, weakness, fatigue, chest pain, irregular pulse, lightheadedness and sudden cardiac death. It is also possible that a person has one of these conditions but experiences no symptoms or very little symptoms.
Causes
The workload of our heart is increased due to high blood pressure. This contributes to the thickening of our heart muscles and blood vessel walls over time. When the heart pumps against this increased pressure in the blood vessels, the left ventricle becomes large.
Due to this reason the cardiac output i.e. the amount of blood pumped by our heart every minute decreases. The common risk factor for stroke and heart disease is hypertension. If it is not treated timely then the symptoms of cognitive heart failure can also develop.
Diagnosis
In order to determine whether you have hypertensive heart disease or not tests performed are: cardiac stress test, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, echocardiogram and coronary angiogram.
Treatment
Treatment of hypertensive heart disease includes reduction of blood pressure and controlling the heart disease. Patient may be treated with medications such as calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, direct vasodilators and angiotensin two receptor antagonists. If hypertension is serious then intravenous medications may be prescribed. Blood pressure should be monitored at regular intervals.
The patient is recommended to make some lifestyle changes like reducing salt and alcohol intake, losing excess weight, doing regular exercise, taking nutritious diet and giving up smoking.
