Heart Disease. The Basics

What is the definition of heart disease?

Heart disease is a general term for a range of medical conditions that affect the heart.

What are the different kinds of heart disease?

Coronary heart disease

Is a condition of the artery that supplies blood to the heart caused by the accumulation of plaque in the artery.

Cardiomyopathy

Deterioration of cardiac muscle.

Cardiovascular disease

A number of specific diseases that affect the heart and/or the blood vessels associated with the heart especially the veins and arteries leading to and from the heart.

Ischaemic disease

A disease of the heart itself that results in reduced blood supply to the body organs.

Heart failure

Can result from any structural or functional problems that prevents the heart from filling up with blood or pumping the blood around the body.

Hypertensive heart disease

Caused by high blood pressure.

Valvular heart disease

Caused by one or more defective heart valves.

Inflammatory heart disease

Caused by inflammation of the heart muscle and/or the tissue surrounding it.

How many people die of heart disease?

There are 208,000 deaths per year in the United Kingdom(UK) and 8,64480 deaths per year in the United States(US).(US and UK Statistics for 2005).