Coronary artery. Atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries

Diseases of the heart and associated with it the vascular system at the moment have become a huge problem of modern human civilization. At the same time, the more prosperous the society is in terms of the standard of living, the more serious the situation is in the number of people suffering from coronary heart disease.

What is coronary heart disease?

The human heart is a very complex, finely tuned and sensitive mechanism, the purpose of which can be reduced to one function - the delivery of the substances necessary for the proper vital activity to each cell of the body.

In addition to the heart itself, vessels are involved in this activity, the system of which permeates the human body, which completely ensures the uninterrupted delivery of all the organs most necessary to the cells to the cells.

Crown Artery and its role in the human life support system

Full-fledged work of this system is provided by the heart muscle, the rhythm and completeness of which also depend on the normal supply of blood - the carrier of everything necessary for the normal life of the human body. Blood to the heart muscle comes through the vessels, called coronary.

Hence the name: a coronary vessel, a coronary artery, etc. And if the required blood flow in the coronary arteries decreases, the heart muscle loses its nourishment, which leads to coronary diseases such as heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms and heart attacks. The reason for everything is coronary atherosclerosis.

What is atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries, and what is it terrible?

Over time and under the influence of many factors, which will be discussed later, fats and lipids settle on the walls of the arteries, forming constantly growing sticky plaques, which create obstacles for the normal flow of blood.

Thus, the lumen of the artery gradually decreases, and oxygen for the heart goes less and less, which leads to the appearance of pain in the chest area - angina. Initially, these pains can bother a person only under heavy loads, but gradually become a response even to small efforts, and can subsequently arise and at rest.

Complications and concomitant atherosclerosis diseases

Atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries inevitably leads to such a disease as ischemic heart disease. It is worth noting that so-called cardiac diseases take lives incomparably more than oncological or infectious diseases - and it is in the most developed states.

The defeat of the coronary arteries naturally has a negative effect on the heart muscle, which in turn causes angina, heart attacks, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and the most terrible - cardiac death.

Symptoms of coronary heart disease

The human body has an individual anatomical structure. And the anatomy of the heart, the arteries feeding it, each has its own characteristics. The heart eats two coronary arteries - right and left. And it is the left coronary artery that provides the heart muscle with oxygen in the amount required for its normal functioning.

With a decrease in her blood flow, there are chest pains - symptoms of angina pectoris, and their appearance is often not associated with particular stresses. A person can experience them and being at rest, for example in a dream, and while walking, especially over rough terrain or on a ladder. Such pain can be provoked by weather conditions: in winter, in cold and windy weather, they can disturb more often than in summer.

What you need to know about angina pectoris

First of all, this disease is the result of acute heart failure, provoked by insufficient blood supply to the heart muscle due to the fact that the coronary artery is affected - the left one. Another name for the ailment, known to many of Russian classical literature, is the angina pectoris.

A characteristic manifestation of this disease are pain, already described earlier. But it is also possible (most often in the initial stages) to feel not pain as such, but pressure in the chest, burning sensation. And the amplitude of pain has wide enough boundaries: from almost insignificant, to unbearably acute. The distribution of its distribution is mainly in the left part of the body and rarely in the right part. Painful sensations can appear in the hands, shoulders. Affect the neck and lower jaw.

Painful sensations are not constant, but paroxysmal, and their duration is basically 10 to 15 minutes. Although there are up to half an hour - in this case, a heart attack of the heart muscle is possible. Attacks can be repeated at intervals of 30 times a day to once a month, or even years.

Factors contributing to the development of coronary heart disease

As mentioned earlier, coronary heart disease is the result of damage to the coronary arteries. There are several generally recognized factors in which a coronary artery feeding a heart muscle becomes unfit for use.

The first of these can rightly be called excessively high levels of human cholesterol in the blood, which due to its viscosity is the primary cause of plaque formation on the walls of the artery.

The next risk factor contributing to the development of heart disease, namely a heart attack, is hypertension - excess blood pressure.

Huge harm to the coronary arteries of the heart is obtained from smoking. The risk of damage to the walls of arteries is repeatedly increased due to the harmful effects of chemical compounds on them, of which tobacco smoke is composed.

The next risk factor, which increases the probability of coronary artery disease, is a disease such as diabetes mellitus. With this disease, the entire vascular system of a person undergoes atherosclerosis, and the likelihood of developing heart disease at an earlier age is significantly increased.

Heredity can also be attributed to risk factors that affect the appearance of heart disease. Especially if the fathers of potential patients had heart attacks, or death occurred as a result of coronary disease before the age of 55, and in mothers - up to 65 years.

Prophylaxis and treatment of coronary heart disease

Avoid or reduce the risk of coronary heart disease can be if you follow up, with rigor and continuous, a few simple recommendations, which include a healthy lifestyle, the rejection of bad habits, reasonable physical activity and the passage of annual preventive examinations.

Treatment of coronary heart diseases includes several options: medication therapy and cardiac surgery. The most common is coronary artery bypass grafting, in which blood is sent to the cardiac muscle along the bypass: along a hemiplegic parallel to the affected area of the aorta, a segment of a healthy vessel taken from the patient himself. The operation is complicated, and after it a patient needs a long rehabilitation period.

Another type of treatment is angioplasty of the coronary artery with a laser. This option is more sparing and does not require the dissection of large segments of the body. Until the affected area of the coronary artery is reached through the vessels of the shoulder, hip or forearm.

Unfortunately, no matter what operations are carried out, even the most successful of them do not get rid of atherosclerosis. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to comply with all medical prescriptions, this applies not only to medicines, but also the recommended diet.