What is Cardiovascular Disease?
Facts
Being responsible for pumping the blood that carries the substances necessary for our organs to function, the heart contracts 70 times per minute to perform this task, sending an average of 70 ml of blood to our organs each time. During an average human lifetime, our heart contracts about 2.5 billion times, pumping 180 million liters of blood through our body.
Organs need nutrients and oxygen to maintain their vitality and perform their functions. These are transported to our organs through the blood. The blood is transported to the organs through the arteries. Our heart has the task of pumping the blood into the arteries. Like every organ, the heart needs nutrients. The arteries that supply the heart itself are called “coronary arteries”. Diseases that can occur in the coronary arteries are of vital importance, as they directly affect the work and efficiency of the heart.
Atherosclerosis
The most common and important disease of the coronary arteries is atherosclerosis. In this disease, a number of substances, mainly cholesterol, builds up in the coronary arteries, and stenosis and occlusion occur at these sites.
Here we see the development of atherosclerosis in the cardiovascular sections. The structures we call plaque, which form in the arteries as a result of atherosclerosis, can grow over time and narrow the vascular space. As the narrowing of the vessel reduces the amount of blood flowing through it, problems arise from malnutrition of the heart.
The resulting picture is called coronary artery disease or coronary heart disease. As a result, the supply of the heart is disturbed, and the rhythmic function and contraction of the heart is impaired according to the severity of the disease. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death and loss of working capacity in adults in our country and around the world.