THE HEART AND RELATED DISORDERS.

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system (including all vertebrates), that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions.

HEART DISEASES
Heart diseases or Cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of different diseases affecting the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States. Heart disease is one of a number of different diseases which afflict the heart. The most common heart diseases are:

Coronary heart disease, the end result of the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium Ischaemic heart disease, a disease characterized by reduced blood supply to the heart.

Cardiovascular disease, a class of diseases that involve the heart and/or blood vessels (arteries and veins), implies under this category some popular diseases like: diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Pulmonary heart disease, a failure of the right side of the heart,

Hereditary heart disease,

Hypertensive heart disease (Hypertension),

Inflammatory heart disease etc

If you're like most people, you think that heart disease is a problem for other folks. But heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. It is also a major cause of disability. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called the coronary artery disease refers to the failure of the coronary circulation to supply adequate circulation to cardiac muscle and surrounding tissue.

CORONARY HEART DISEASE is most commonly equated with Coronary artery disease although coronary heart disease can be due to other causes, such as coronary vasospasm. Coronary artery disease is a disease of the artery caused by the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium. Angina pectoris (chest pain) and myocardial infarction (heart attack) are symptoms of and conditions caused by coronary heart disease. Over 459,000 Americans die of coronary heart disease every year. In the United Kingdom, 101,000 deaths annually are due to coronary heart disease, and it happens slowly over time.

CARDIOMYOPATHY: literally means "heart muscle disease" (Myo= muscle, pathy= disease) It is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium (i.e., the actual heart muscle) for any reason. People with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac death. Extrinsic cardiomyopathies – where the primary pathology is outside the myocardium itself. Most cardiomyopathies are extrinsic, because by far the most common cause of a cardiomyopathy is ischemia. The World Health Organization calls these specific cardiomyopathies such as Alcoholic cardiomyopathy, Coronary artery disease, Congenital heart disease, Nutritional diseases affecting the heart, Ischemic (or ischaemic) cardiomyopathy, Hypertensive cardiomyopathy, Valvular cardiomyopathy, Inflammatory cardiomyopathy, Cardiomyopathy secondary to a systemic metabolic disease, Myocardiodystrophy, Intrinsic cardiomyopathies – weakness in the muscle of the heart that is not due to an identifiable external cause. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) – most common form, and one of the leading indications for heart transplantation. In DCM the heart (especially the left ventricle) is enlarged and the pumping function is diminished.