Chatterjee, K. (2002). Congestive Heart Failure.American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, 2(1), 1-6.
This article clearly outlines the epidemiology of congestive heart failure, especially in the USA. It illustrates the number of patients suffering from this condition to be approximately less than five million. This is an indication of the widespread of this disease. The number of emerging cases is on the rise with almost seven hundred thousand new patients on yearly basis. The spread of this condition increases with increase in age with about 1.5 percent of Americans suspected to have this condition. The number is even greater for those people aged sixty-five years and above. The percentage prevalence is about six to ten percent within this age group.
Hosenpud, J. D., & Greenberg, B. H. (2007).Congestive heart failure. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This article outlines description, history and the clinical concepts of this cardiac condition. It will help in the description of the history of the congestive heart failure. This will entail the introduction of this paper on evidence-based medical practice. This involves a brief description of this condition as the decreased ability of the heart to pump sufficient blood to the entire body. This will lead to decreased nutrients, oxygen, protection and warmth to various organs of the body. On the other hand, there would be accumulation of metabolic waste products in the body hence signs and symptoms of harmful and detrimental conditions in the entire body.
Malki, Q., Sharma, N. D., Afzal, A., Ananthsubramaniam, K., Abbas, A., Jacobson, G., & Jafri, S. (2002). Clinical presentation, hospital length of stay, and readmission rate in patients with heart failure with preserved and decreased left the ventricular systolic function.Clinical Cardiology,25(4), 149-152.
This article serves to illustrate the clinical presentation of this condition. Since this a condition that involves the function of the heart in relation to the entire body, it would be of great essence to highlight some of the signs and symptoms that result from this particular condition. This will also include the extent to which this condition leads to the number of admissions to the hospital the length of hospital stay. Both of these factors would change in relation to the patient's clinical presentation. Some of the clinical manifestations of this condition include presence of pulmonary vascular congestion on x-ray of heart in the thoracic region and two-dimensional echocardiography documentation of the left ventricular functioning. On physical examination, this article, reveals certain features such as dyspnea (exertional, rest or paroxysmal nocturnal), and orthopnea.
Kannel, W. B., Hjortland, M., & Castelli, W. P. (1974). Role of diabetes in congestive heart failure: the Framingham study.The American journal of cardiology, 34(1), 29-34.
This splendid article illustrates some of the major causes of congestive heart failure among the different age groups and different sexes. It provides the information on causes in the paper. Some of the causes outlined in the article include diabetes. This condition constantly associates with the onset and presentation of the congestive cardiac condition. Other causes include coronary or rheumatic cardiac disease, smoking cigarettes, obesity, hypertension, and atherogenesis. The prevalence of these causes vary and acting in combination produce lethal effects.
Some of the physiological conditions identified to influence the onset of this condition include blood pressure, age, weight and cholesterol values. Sex also appeared to contribute greatly towards susceptibility of individuals to this condition with women more prone to this abnormal condition of the heart.
Kumar, V., Cotran, R. S., & Robbins, S. L. (2003).Robbins basic pathology(7th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.
This book of pathology clearly illustrates the pathophysiology of this condition. I intend to use the contents to illustrate clearly the mechanisms that underlie the congestive cardiac failure. This book illustrates the damaging or overloading as the factors leading to decreased efficiency of heart striated muscles (myocardium). Overloading of the heart's ventricles leads to their decreased force of contraction and hence reduced pumping effect of blood to the lungs (right ventricle) and to the entire body (left ventricle). In addition, there is decreased systolic and diastolic functioning hence reduction in the stroke volume. In an attempt to adapt to the increased demands, the muscle fibers increase in size (hypertrophy). Furthermore, there is development of exercise intolerance as the heart works harder to try to cope with the increase in oxygen demand there is less room for increase in blood pumping in case of exercise.
Parmley, W. W. (1985). Pathophysiology of congestive heart failure.The American journal of cardiology, 55(2), A9-A14.
This source further provides a more specific approach to pathophysiology of congestive heart failure in comparison to the earlier book. In this article, there is detailed illustration of the primary defect of the heart as the decrease in myocardium's contractility. This decrease in contractility results either from volume overload or from prolonged pressure. This change in size has several adverse effects that include increase in the level of stiffness of the heart during diastole. There is occurrence of several nervous and humoral changes increasing the systemic vascular resistance. This further leads to a decreased amount of cardiac output. The compensatory changes that result from this congestive condition are responsible for the other negative results of this condition.
MATTOX, K. L., LIMACHER, M. C., FELICIANO, D. V., COLOSIMO, L., O'MEARA, M. E., BEALL Jr, A. C., & DeBAKEY, M. E. (1985). Cardiac evaluation following heart injury.The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 25(8), 758-765.
This article is important in highlighting the process of diagnosis of this condition by a medical professional. It illustrates the urgency needed in the diagnosis and treatment of this condition. Some of the techniques involved in this process include blood tests, imaging, electrophysiology, monitoring and angiography. During imaging, there is application of ultrasound technology to check on the stroke volume, ejection fraction, end diastolic volume and the ratio of stroke volume to end diastolic volume. On the other hand, electrophysiology helps in the diagnosis of hypertrophy of the ventricles, ischemic cardiac disease, arrhythmias and abnormalities in abnormalities in conduction. In the use of echocardiography, the pulse-Doppler helped to recognize defects of the ventricular septum and insufficiency of the tricuspid. The two-dimensional helped demonstrate abnormal chamber enlargement and pericardial effusion.
Croft, C. H., Woodward, W., Elliott, A., Commerford, P. J., Barnard, C. N., & Beck, W. (1983). Analysis of surgical versus medical therapy in active complicated native valve infective endocarditis.The American journal of cardiology, 51(10), 1650-1655.
This peer review article helps illustrate the management and treatment of this cardiac condition. It also provides data on the number of patients who die when clinical workers prescribe to them certain forms of treatment. In case of acute conditions like acute decompensation, there is need to immediately restore the airway system hence the administration of vasodilators like nitroglycerin and diuretics. In the case of chronic management of the disease, there is need to administer inhibitors of ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) like ramipril, beta blockers and vasodilators. The treatment also entails administering drugs to relieve the anemia that accompany congestive heart disease. This procedure also involves palliative care during the early stages of the disease to help alleviate conditions such as shortness of breath and chest pain.
DeWood, M. A., Heit, J., Spores, J., Berg Jr, R., Selinger, S. L., Rudy, L. W., ... & Paul Shields, J. (1983). Anterior transmural myocardial infarction: effects of surgical coronary reperfusion on global and regional left ventricular function.Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 1(5), 1223-1234.
This article provides the details on the probable fate of a patient suffering from this condition either before or after treatment. The period before treatment also influences the outcome of treatment with those treated within four hours of onset of symptoms showing a better response when compared with those who receive treatment after about nine hours. Patients who exhibit a urine nitrogen level that is less than 43mg/dl and a blood pressure of 115/90 mm/Hg tend to survive and avoid death. One of the most accurate and reliable means of performing prognosis for a patient with congestive heart disease is the cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
Smith, W. M. (1985). Epidemiology of congestive heart failure.The American journal of cardiology, 55(2), A3-A8.
This article is crucial in the description of the epidemiology of congestive cardiac failure. In 1983, the estimated number of men with this condition was about two hundred and fourteen thousand. This was much bigger than that of women, a mere one hundred and eighty thousand cases. However, these data are on the rise with approximately seven hundred thousand cases reported in America per annum. The prevalence of the disease is greater among the adults. There is further magnification for those aged at least sixty-five years of age. It was of significance to note that the disease was more prominent among men as compared to women. The disease is further associated with overt cardiac disease and advance in age.
