Friday, February 24, 2012

Coronary heart disease


Coronary heart disease is the progressive reduction of blood supply to the heart muscle due to narrowing or blocking of the coronary arteries. Reduction in blood supply causes oxygen deprivation to the cells.
Depending upon its duration, the consequences of oxygen deprivation vary. Short-term oxygen deprivation can cause Angina Pectoris. Long-term, severe oxygen depletion causes Heart Attack. Coronary bypass or Angioplasty is needed if medication and diet do not control coronary heart disease. 




General structure and function of heart

The heart is the center or seat of power of the circulatory system. A person's heart is roughly of the same size as his/her closed fist. This should give you an approximate estimate of the size of your heart. Here are some statistics about the human heart:
  • Rate of pumping: 4 quarts or 3.8 liters per minute.
  • Weight: about 8 to 12 ounces or 230 to 340 grams.
  • Number of beats per minute: 72 times per minute.
Taking into consideration the fact that a person's average lifetime is 70 years, it will beat about 2 1/2 billion times and pump a total of 35 million gallons (132 million liters) or more of blood from birth to death! Quite a huge figure!



No comments:

Post a Comment