What happened to the heart?

Cardiac enlargement is a common symptom of heart disease. Cardiac enlargement refers to the phenomenon of an increase in the volume of the heart. In general, the enlargement occurs in a certain part of the heart. When the heart is enlarged, the patient may experience coughing, anemia or rheumatism. There are many reasons for heart enlargement. In addition to congenital heart disease, some other diseases can also cause heart enlargement.

What happened to the heart?

Heart enlargement is mainly caused by excessive myocardial systolic load (afterload), while cerebral enlargement is mainly caused by excessive myocardial diastolic load (preload). Under normal circumstances, when the preload and afterload increase, the heart can rely on certain reserve mechanisms of its own to meet the various needs of the body within a certain range. However, under pathological conditions, the heart's reserve capacity decreases, and the load limit that a normal heart can tolerate becomes intolerable, resulting in excessive preload and/or afterload, which leads to heart enlargement.

Excessive preload:

Preload is also called volume load, which refers to the amount of venous return to the heart or the end-diastolic volume of the ventricle. According to Starling's law, within a certain limit, cardiac output increases with the increase of preload. Beyond this limit, the cardiac output decreases after the increase of preload, thereby increasing the end-diastolic volume of the ventricle and causing heart enlargement.

Excessive afterload:

Afterload, also known as pressure load, refers to the ejection impedance during ventricular contraction, which increases with the increase of peripheral resistance. When there are conditions such as semilunar valve stenosis, systemic circulation hypertension and pulmonary hypertension, peripheral resistance increases, causing cardiac hypertrophy.

Prevention of heart enlargement

Patients diagnosed with heart enlargement should maintain a good mood, avoid fatigue, supplement nutrition, pay attention to preventing respiratory infections, quit smoking and drinking, go to the hospital for regular checkups, protect or improve heart function, and improve quality of life. If you experience symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, chest tightness, fatigue, etc., you should go to the hospital immediately.

Female patients should not become pregnant. Once heart failure occurs, patients should rest for a long time and eat a low-salt diet. If severe breathing difficulties occur, which worsens when lying down, and the patient sweats profusely, it may be a sign of severe heart failure. The patient should be placed in a sitting or semi-sitting position, and a call should be made to the medical emergency center for help, or the patient should be sent to a nearby hospital by the safest, smoothest, and fastest means of transportation.

Upper respiratory tract infection is the most common cause of worsening heart enlargement, so it is particularly important to prevent colds, especially influenza. It has been raining for several days and the body feels damp and cold, so it is even more necessary to keep warm in time. In daily life, we should combine work and rest. Adequate rest can reduce the burden on the heart and promote myocardial recovery.

Long-term drinkers must quit drinking. If they drink again after recovery from treatment, relapse will be more difficult to treat. When you have congestive heart failure, in addition to reasonably restricting your activities, you should also strictly limit your sodium intake. The standard for a low-salt diet is to control the daily salt intake to less than 5 grams, and for those with severe conditions, to less than 1 gram per day.