The adjective cardiac, which can also be written and pronounced with the accentuation cardiac, comes from the Latin word cardiăcus, which in turn derives from the Greek kardiakós. The concept refers to what is linked to the heart. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG for abbreviations related to Cardiac.
To understand what the idea of cardiac refers to, therefore, it is necessary to be clear about what the heart is. It is a muscular organ present in all vertebrate animals and in some invertebrates, whose function is to pump blood to different parts of the body.
In the case of humans, the heart is located in a space known as the thoracic cavity. The organ is divided into four chambers: the lower two are called ventricles (the left ventricle and the right ventricle), while the upper two are called atria (the left atrium and the right atrium). The veins that enter the right atrium are called cardiac veins.
These cardiac veins are the superior vena cava (which collects blood from the head, neck, upper extremities, and rib cage) and the inferior vena cava (carries blood from the pelvis, abdomen, and lower extremities). Both veins are responsible for moving poorly oxygenated blood.
The cardiac output is the volume of blood the heart pumps at a certain time unit. The heart problems, moreover, are diseases and disorders of the heart. By extension, it is often said that a person is “cardiac” when he suffers some kind of problem in this organ.
A heart attack, on the other hand, is a heart attack: the necrosis of the heart, the product of a blockage in the coronary arteries. Heart attack can cause cardiac arrest and cause death.
It is known by the name of heart failure to the condition that exists when the heart is not able to pump blood adequately to the needs of metabolism, that is, it cannot supply the body with the required volumes, or it succeeds but to cost of abnormally elevated pressure in the ventricles.
There are a series of activities and care that specialists recommend to patients with heart failure to carry out every day in order to avoid decompensation. It is very important to point out that the work of physicians is not absolute, but rather requires the collaboration of their patients to obtain the best results.
Let’s look at some of these tips below:
* control weight: heart failure patients should weigh themselves daily, as soon as they get up in the morning and after urinating. As far as possible, it is indicated that they do not change scales so that the values maintain the highest degree of coherence. Thanks to this habit it is possible to quickly realize if the body is accumulating fluids;
* take your blood pressure: this can be done at any time of the day. Since nowadays it is normal to have an automatic device at home, which makes this task very easy. Note that the intake should not be done after making an effort, since the figures may rise above normal until the body returns to a state of rest;
* Measure heart rate: the same device used to take blood pressure gives a value of the rate heart, therefore, these two activities can be made the same time. Of course, it is always possible to use the “traditional method”, which consists of placing a finger on the wrist area at the beginning of the thumb and measuring the heartbeat with a watch.
