note! These heart diseases "favor" young people
Guangzhou Daily (all-media reporter Zhang Qingmei, correspondent Zhang Cancheng, Wang Xue) Heart disease is a high-risk disease among the elderly, but it is not exclusive to the elderly. The incidence of some types of diseases in young people is not lower than that in the elderly. Because young people's body organs are in the best condition, they often have strong compensatory ability in the early stage of the disease, so the symptoms are not obvious or tolerable. After a period of time, "small problems" will grind into "big problems", or even larger problems, and in the end a greater price will be required.
So, which heart diseases should young people pay special attention to? Zhang Xiaoshen, director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, used a real case to alert young people.
Atrial defect causes valve infection
Ms. Chen is a young mother. Suddenly during pregnancy, she continued to have cold and fever for a period of time. After a period of treatment, her symptoms continued to recur, and she was getting weaker and breathing more and more. So she went to the First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University for medical treatment. It was found that there was a defect on the atrial surface, and the mitral valve had severe regurgitation at the same time. Her symptoms are due to heart failure caused by heart infection and valve erosion.
When the doctor asked about the medical history, Ms. Chen remembered that the doctor had reminded her of a heart murmur during the previous physical examination and suggested that she go to the hospital for further examinations, but she did not feel any discomfort, so she did not stop. In fact, the heart murmur discovered by doctors at the time was a defect in the atrium. The medical term is "atrial septal defect", which belongs to congenital heart disease. The occurrence of infective endocarditis is probably related to this congenital heart malformation. Makes blood easy to pool in the heart, thereby infecting the heart. In the end, Ms. Chen recovered after receiving effective surgery and medical treatment, but the valve had to be replaced due to severe erosion, and the fetus in the abdomen actively gave up the abortion.
Cases like Ms. Chen are not in the minority, and they did not pay enough attention to the problem in the early stage of the disease. If the "atrial septal defect" was treated as early as possible, subsequent heart infections could be avoided to a large extent, and the valves would not be eroded due to infection.
These young people have more heart disease
Zhang Xiaoshen reminded that some heart diseases mostly occur in young people. If enough attention is paid, early treatment will usually have a good effect.
1. Congenital heart disease:
Congenital heart disease accounts for 28% of all kinds of congenital malformations. Although many congenital heart diseases are treated in infancy or childhood, due to regional differences in the level of medical care and the lack of obvious early symptoms of some diseases, some people suffer from it. Patients with congenital heart disease still do not know that they have congenital heart disease when they are adults. Even if they know, some patients do not take it seriously because the symptoms are not obvious. However, when symptoms of this kind of disease appear in the later stage, the disease has often developed to a large amount of damage to the heart and lungs, and the damage is difficult to fully recover.
2. Heart valve prolapse disease:
The heart has four valves that open and close to make blood flow in one direction at the edge of the heart. When the valve leaflets prolapse, the valve will not close tightly, causing valve regurgitation, and part of the blood will not flow forward and flow back into the heart. The heart gradually becomes overloaded and causes chest tightness, shortness of breath, and lower extremity edema. In the early stage of the disease, there is a great chance that valve prolapse can be repaired, but in the later stage of the disease, the valve is severely damaged and difficult to repair. It may even be necessary to remove and replace the artificial valve, requiring lifelong medication. Due to the strong compensatory ability of young people, the symptoms may not be obvious in the early stage of the disease, and the symptoms often appear when the valve prolapse is more serious.
3. Infective endocarditis:
Bacteria enter the heart with the blood and stay in the heart to erode the heart tissue and cause heart infection. A relatively large proportion of patients with endocarditis have structural heart diseases. For example, the two types of diseases described above. The existence of these diseases makes the patient’s blood with bacteria stay in the heart for longer, and the bacteria are more likely to adhere. Causes an infection in the heart. Once infected, there may be many complications, and even permanent sequelae. For patients with heart disease, who have persistent fever, chest tightness, and shortness of breath, seeing a doctor early is the most effective way to reduce complications. Of course, for patients with heart disease, early treatment is the most effective way to prevent infective endocarditis.
4. Viral myocarditis:
The inflammatory disease of the myocardium occurs after the virus enters the heart with the blood. Its early symptoms are similar to those of ordinary viral infections, such as fever, body aches, fatigue, and later symptoms of decreased heart function such as chest pain, chest tightness, and dyspnea. There is no specific treatment in treatment. For mild cases, you can rest and self-heal after symptomatic treatment. For severe cases, you may need to use heart assist devices for treatment.
How do young people find heart problems early?
Zhang Xiaoshen reminded that first of all, in terms of symptoms, many heart diseases will have chest tightness, palpitations, chest pain, dyspnea and other symptoms. If you have the above symptoms, you should rule out whether there is a heart problem.
Second, auscultation. Auscultation is a very simple way to distinguish structural heart disease. If you hear sounds different from others around the heart, you can go to the hospital for further examination to confirm the diagnosis.
Third, family history. If your close relatives have had heart problems, because some heart diseases have a genetic predisposition, you should check the heart preventively to rule out heart problems.