In the United States, one person dies every 33 seconds because of cardiovascular disease. Out of 860,000 Americans who die from heart disease yearly, 150,000 die mainly due to stroke. This makes heart disease and stroke the most fatal disease that one could suffer from.
To help you understand more about heart disease and stroke, we have prepared a comprehensive guide for you. The following sections contain more information about these conditions and the startling trends revealed by the American Heart Association.
Heart Disease and Stroke
In the country, heart disease and stroke are the first and fifth leading causes of death. Both are conditions that involve the cardiovascular system. Genetics, age, and lifestyle are among the most crucial factors that increase your risk for these conditions.
Other risk factors include obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, secondhand smoke, unhealthy diet, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, and high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
There are individual medications to manage each of these risk factors, for instance, you can take bad cholesterol medication and avail of Ezetimibe Savings Offer so you can cut the costs and reserve what you have saved for other medications like Metformin for diabetes and lisinopril for high blood pressure.
However, there could be complications in taking multiple medications for these risk factors all at once. This is why modern technologies in managing and detecting cardiovascular diseases were introduced. We will get into these medical solutions in the following sections of this article.
Meanwhile, learn more about the most common cardiovascular diseases that can be easily acquired by vulnerable individuals.
● Stroke
There are two types of stroke: ischaemic stroke (caused by a blockage with a blood clot) and hemorrhagic stroke (caused by a ruptured blood vessel and bleeding.
● Coronary Heart Disease
Coronary heart disease can be heart disease (acute myocardial infarction) or angina.
● Peripheral Muscular Disease
This condition is caused by reduced blood circulation (due to blood vessel obstruction) to a body part other than the heart and brain.
● Acute Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease
This is caused by an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria.
● Congenital Heart Disease
This is an inborn condition that affects the structure of the heart, including the blood vessels, changing the way blood flows through the heart.
The American Heart Association’s Revelations
In the United States, the American Health Association has the highest form of authority to release relevant information on cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and stroke.
The 2023 update of the American Health Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics revealed that 928,741 deaths in America in 2020 were due to cardiovascular disease. Moreover, in the same year, coronary heart disease accounted for 41.2% of deaths, 17.3% for stroke, 12.9% for high blood pressure, 9.2% for heart failure, 2.6% for diseases of the arteries, and 16.8% for other cardiovascular diseases.
Advances in Medical Technology and Early Detection
For a better level of care, a few advances in medical technology and early detection were developed by heart care facilities. These technological innovations include the following:
● Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
A medical procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement was first performed in 2002 to relieve symptoms of aortic valve stenosis like angina, fatigue, shortness of breath, and chest pain, among many others. It’s a non-surgical heart procedure that involves the replacement of the narrowed aortic valve with an artificial valve.
TAVR can be an alternative option for patients exposed to surgical aortic valve replacement complications. The heart and heart surgery specialists assigned to a patient’s case will determine whether the procedure is necessary.
● Watchman Treatment for AFib
Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) is a condition where the upper chamber of the heart beats fast and irregularly (in most cases, going beyond 400 beats per minute). Blood thinners were the usual medication for this condition. However, with Watchman Implant, the risk of stroke and bleeding won’t be that threatening.
AFib can cause the blood to settle in an area of the heart called the left atrial appendage (LAA). This will then lead to a blood clot, and when a blood clot goes out of the LAA and goes to another part of the body, it could possibly result in stroke, as the blood supply to the brain gets cut off.
The Watchman Implant fits in the LAA, closing the area and keeping blood clots from escaping. For the record, more than 300,000 patients have quit using blood thinners to manage AFib.
● HeartFLow FFRct Analysis
The HeartFlow FFRct Analysis allows doctors to diagnose coronary heart disease. This procedure yields a personalized 3D model of the coronary arteries. This exceptional visualization allows physicians to come up with effective treatment plans based on the needs and conditions of each patient.
This could be an option if your doctor won’t find anything after administering a CT (computerized tomography) scan. This test can be done in the same center where the CT scan was done.
Around the world, 170,000 patients have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease through HeartFlow FFRct Analysis. The procedure is available in the US, Japan, Canada, and Europe.
Final Thoughts
The health industry is continuously developing new treatments as disease-causing organisms evolve. Through combined studies in the fields of medical science and medical technology, we can benefit from future developments in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases like heart disease and stroke. Of course, by looking at the latest updates and trends on the prevalence of these conditions, we can be more aware and emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle even more.