Free Research Paper About Cardiomyopathy: Symptoms, Diagnosis And Treatment

ABSTRACT

Cardiomyopathy is a heart disease characterized by stiffening and hypertrophy of the musculature of the heart followed by scarring. It deprives the heart from the flexibility required in the muscles to pump the blood sufficiently leading to heart failure. There are four major types of cardiomyopathy and it can be acquired or congenital. Latter usually unpreventable and can only be controlled. Usual symptoms are shortness of breath, easy fatigability, edema of limbs and venous engorgement. Clinical as well as radiological evidence is required for its diagnosis. Surgical interventions are available to treat cardiomyopathy and besides pharmacotherapy, physical activity and healthy lifestyle should be encouraged for better outcomes. Other co-morbids should be well controlled.
Key words:

Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure, Congenital, Restrictive Cardiomyopathy, Septal Myomectomy, Coronary Angiography, Diabetes, Cholesterol.

Background Information
Definition of Cardiomyopathy
The advancements in technology, along with the changing lifestyles of the people make them more prone to diseases. Due to multiple symptoms observed in a specific person, there has been a need to advance the technologies needed in healthcare because of the increasing number of newly-identified diseases and other specific diseases including cardiomyopathy.
Cardiomyopathy is a heart disease in which the muscle of the heart becomes enlarged and stiff. Sometimes, cardiomyopathy happens when the muscle tissue is replaced by a scar tissue (Giles & Sander, 2008). Cardiomyopathy causes the heart to become too fragile to pump blood through the body as well as to maintain the blood circulation. It will result in either the form of heart failure or irregular heartbeat known as arrhythmias (Podrid & Kowey, 2001). It comes in different types including (1) dilated cardiomyopathy, (2) ischemic cardiomyopathy, (3) restrictive cardiomyopathy and (4) peripartum cardiomyopathy.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the chambers of the heart get larger than usual causing difficulty in breathing. Blood cannot pump out carefully from the heart and so it cannot supply the oxygen and blood that the different body system needs. On the other hand, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the muscles of the heart gets thicker than usual, further making the blood difficult to leave the heart to circulate around the body. This is the type of cardiomyopathy that is hereditary; it can be passed from one generation to another. The third is the ischemic cardiomyopathy in which the arteries becomes narrow, resulting to thinner heart walls further making it function abnormally. The last type of cardiomyopathy is peripartum cardiomyopathy in which it happens usually to the pregnant women, from its first to fifth week. If not treated urgently or not given proper medication, all these types of cardiomyopathy could bring more complications most especially to the young aged.

Risk to Cardiomyopathy

Every single people on earth, regardless of age, can have cardiomyopathy. But still, each type of cardiomyopathy can be seen evident to certain cohort or age group. For example, the dilated cardiomyopathy is acquired more commonly by the African-Americans compared to the population of white people living in the state. Also, it occurs more to men than to women. The other types of cardiomyopathy are the same with the abovementioned one. Their only difference is to where and what specific culture or groups of people are more at risk to having cardiomyopathy.
Major factors that can increase your risk in acquiring cardiomyopathy includes (1) family’s history or cardiomyopathy or any cardio muscular problems including heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), (2) diabetes and other forms of problems in metabolism, (3) diseases that are damaging the heart like hemochromatosis, sarcoidosis and/or amyloidosis, (4) alcoholism or binge drinking and (5) long term high blood pressure without proper medication.

Symptoms and Diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy

Some of the important symptoms of cardiomyopathy are shortness of breath or trouble in breathing, especially during the physical exercise, fatigue and swelling in the feet, legs, and abdomen and veins of the neck (Miller & Eriksson, 2009).
Cardiomyopathy can be diagnosed by examining the history of the family, from the results of the tests as well as the physical examination of the patient (Rajenderan, 2004). The medical tests include the blood test, chest x Ray, electrocardiogram, Holter and even-monitors, echocardiography and stress test. The cardiac catheterization, coronary angiography, and myocardial biopsy also help in diagnosing the disease (American Heart Association, 2013).

Prevention and Treatment of Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy can be treated by different types of surgeries (McDonagh & Gardner, 2011). The surgeries include septal myomectomy, implanted devices to help heart work better and heart transplantation (Cleveland Clinic, 2015). Besides the medication, doctors believed that physical fitness can help controlling this disease and, for this reason, a patient must have healthy activities to stop the disease from becoming worse (Topol & Califf, 2007).
If the disease is inherited then, it cannot be prevented (Stergiopoulos, 2013). However, one can take steps to prevent from becoming complicated cardiomyopathy by controlling high blood pressure, diabetes, and high blood cholesterol.

Cardiomyopathy in Children

Abovementioned are the types of cardiomyopathy including ischemic. When it comes to children, cardiomyopathy is in the form of nonischemic. Nonischemic cardiomyopathy is all about the abnormal structure and functioning of the heart, regardless of the thickening of arteries, veins or even the abnormalities of the bulbs.
Nonischemic cardiomyopathy can be further broken down into two types, the primary and secondary nonischemic cardiomyopathy. When the heart becomes affected, malfunctions and shows abnormalities because of any form of infections, it is considered as primary nonischemic cardiomyopathy. On the other hand, when such conditions are caused by

Statement of the Problem

Cardiomyopathy is a serious problem in cardiovascular system of man. It has no target age group; it occurs even to children since it is hereditary. Such type of illness should be studied keenly to understand its occurrence and to know how to treat it immediately. It should not be disregarded for it may harm the large portion of the population as it runs from one generation to another. The following questions are expected to be answered as the study moves forward:

What is the medicinal definition of cardiomyopathy?

What are the different types of cardiomyopathy?
Who are at risk and what is the most vulnerable age group or cohort in acquiring cardiomyopathy?
What are the symptoms of the different types of cardiomyopathy occurring at different age group?
How is cardiomyopathy diagnosed and what are the processes involved in the diagnosis of any type of cardiomyopathy?
How to prevent and what are the types of treatments offered to people with any type of cardiomyopathy?
How does cardiomyopathy attack children or the lower age groups? How does it attack old-age people or the old age groups?

Significance of the Study

Since it is harmful to a specific population, being it hereditary and so it runs from one generation to another, it should not be disregarded and should be further studied by medical experts, researchers and other academicians to have improvements and developments in medical processes and treatment. Having studies such this one can raise the awareness of the people on the existence of the different types of cardiomyopathy, help the medical academicians know what should be further improved in the processes they do to treat any type of cardiomyopathy, and also, this will help the rest of the population know what should be done not to acquire any type of it.
Therefore, such study can be used as the armor of the whole population of the world against cardiomyopathy, and can also be considered as the mitigation of the healthcare sector to improve the health statuses of the people in different areas around the globe. The different personnel under the field of medicine are considered stewards of the people in keeping them away from sickness and helping them out and their family to improve their current health conditions. All in all, the main goal is to have safe people living in a safe environment where resources are abundant and are replaced to maintain sustainability, both for the benefit of the present and future generations.

Methodology and Design

The study on knowing what is cardiomyopathy, and the rest of its components as defined and enumerated as guide questions will fall under quantitative type of research. It will mostly deal with statistics and will include survey and key informant interview to be able to have the primary data. On the other hand, in gathering secondary data, different types of credible publications will be used such as comparative studies, research studies and other non-experimental designs will be used.

Types and Sources of Information

Two types of information will be used in this study—both primary and secondary. The primary data that will be used in this study will be gathered through survey to random people as representative of their age group or cohort to know the awareness of the people outside the medical world on what is cardiomyopathy. Another would be key informant interview to representatives of the healthcare sector to know the statistics of the occurrence of the different types of cardiomyopathy among different age groups, to be able to identify the main causes of cardiomyopathy according to the cases they have encountered, to know at what specific age group do cardiomyopathy occurs and to know, according to credible medical personnel how to stay healthy and to increase resistance from having any of the types of cardiomyopathy.
Secondary resources which will be used in the study includes both published and unpublished researches in the field of medicine, publications, journals and books which tackles cardiomyopathy, its definition, types, prevention, diagnosis and its relation to children. All secondary resources will only consider those which are credible and up to date.
Considering this study on the different types of cardiomyopathy as a quantitative study, it will mostly deal with statistics obtained through, primarily, the survey and the key informant interview, and secondly, through the published and credible sources obtained from the internet and libraries.

References List

American Heart Assiciation. (2013, May 2). Symptoms and Diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy. Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/Cardiomyopathy/Hypertrophic-Cardiomyopathy_UCM_444317_Article.jsp
Cleveland Clinic. (2015, January 15). Septal Myectomy. Retrieved from http://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/heart/disorders/septal_myectomy
Giles, T. D., & Sander, G. E. (2008). Cardiomyopathy. Pris: PSG.
Stergiopoulos, Kathleen D. L. (2013). Evidence-Based Cardiology Consult. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.
McDonagh, T. A., & Gardner, R. S. (2011). Oxford Textbook of Heart Failure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MedlinePlus. (2015, January 12). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000192.htm
Miller, R. D., & Eriksson, L. I. (2009). Miller's Anesthesia. Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Podrid, P. J., & Kowey, P. R. (2001). Cardiac Arrhythmia: Mechanisms, Diagnosis, and Management. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Rajenderan. (2004). Clinical Diagnosis Cardiovascular System. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Publishers.
Topol, E. J., & Califf, R. M. (2007). Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.