Cardiovascular explanations
Deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis is when a blood clot forms in a vein that is deep inside your body, usually in the lower leg.
A blood clot is a clump of blood that has turned solid. A blood clot can block the way for blood to get through and get to other parts of your body. It is like a big car crash that stops all the other cars from going where they need to go.
The build up of blood can cause your leg to swell up and hurt.
To treat this, we want to stop the clot from getting bigger, make sure it doesn’t spread to other parts of the body and to try and make sure this does not happen again.
Pulmonary embolism
The lungs are important for breathing.
Like all your important organs, it has a blood supply to keep it running. This blood supply can get blocked by a blood clot.
A blood clot is a clump of blood that has turned solid.
If your lungs don’t get enough blood because the blood cannot pass the clot, this can cause symptoms such as shortness of breath and chest pain.
To treat this, our aim is to break up the clot so that your blood can flow normally again, and to stop this from happening again.
Atrial fibrillation
Your heart is a muscle that pumps blood in your body. Your heart is actually very similar to a small house in that it has four rooms, each of which has its walls, own doors, electric and plumbing.
Normally, the heart beats in a regular rhythm. There is an area in a heart that sends electrical signals to make the heartbeat. In atrial fibrillation, there are multiple electrical signals, so the heart gets confused and beats randomly. If the hearts beats too fast this can be dangerous.
With each heartbeat, the heart is designed to completely empty of blood. But if the heart beats too fast, there isn’t enough time for the heart to empty completely. If the blood accumulates in the heart, a blood clot could form. A blood clot is a clump of blood that has turned solid. If this clot travels to your brain, it could lead to a stroke.
When your heart isn’t pumping blood properly, it can make you feel dizzy, tired and short of breath. We can give medication to prevent a blood clot from forming and to try and control the heart beats.
Anaemia
When you breathe, you take in oxygen from the air. The oxygen goes into your lungs. You need a way to get the oxygen to the rest of the body.
Blood flows around your body like a river. Your blood carries the oxygen around the body, but the oxygen needs something to hang on to. If your blood is like a river, red blood cells are the boats that carry the oxygen around the body.
Anaemia is when you don’t have enough red blood cells. If you don’t have enough red blood cells, you can’t carry enough oxygen around the body. This can make you feel tired because your body can’t make enough energy without oxygen. If you don’t get enough oxygen to your brain, you can get headaches, struggle to concentrate and feel dizzy.
Hypertension
The blood in your body flows all around your body through pipes which we call blood vessels. Just like the pipes in your central heating system, if the pressure gets too high, the pipes and other organs become damaged. And like your central heating system, if the pressure is high, you won’t notice a thing until the system bursts. High blood pressure can lead to serious problems like a heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. By controlling your blood pressure, we are trying to prevent that damage.
Heart failure
The heart is a muscle that works like a pump. Its main job is to pump blood throughout your body.
Heart failure occurs when your heart is no longer strong enough to provide your body with all the blood and oxygen it needs. This happens because your heart has become damaged or weakened. When this occurs, your heart works harder than normal and less efficiently. This increased effort can cause physical changes in the heart over time, such as thickening of the walls of the heart.
Heart failure does NOT mean that your heart will suddenly stop working or that you are about to die. It means that your heart must work harder to keep the blood flowing to the rest of your body. It means the heart does not pump as well as it should.
We need to make it easier for the heart to pump. One of the ways we can do this is by controlling the amount of blood going into your heart. If your heart has to pump less blood at a time, the less it will become tired and exhausted and the better it will work.
Hypercholesterolaemia
Cholesterol is a fatty substance in your blood. Cholesterol can build up in the tubes that carry blood around your body and make fatty deposits. Over time, these fatty deposits can grow bigger and bigger. These fatty deposits are a bit like a silently growing volcano. Many are stable and do nothing. Others can sometimes start to slow the flow of blood around the body. But in other cases, it can be serious – like a volcano, one day it might erupt and cause a lot of damage which could end up being fatal. It can cause a heart attack or a stroke. The problem is that it is difficult to tell the stable safe ones from those that are dangerous, so to be safe, we try to make sure your cholesterol levels are not too high so less of these fatty deposits form.
What is good cholesterol?
Good cholesterol is a special type of cholesterol that helps to get rid of fatty deposits.