Detecting Heart Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease appears in five stages, ranging from an early stage with little obvious effect to a final stage where the patient is on life-saving dialysis or awaiting a transplant. Each stage has certain characteristics and means of detection. The more that people know the various signs and effects of being in each stage, the sooner they may get a proper diagnosis from their doctor. Early detection is the best key to effective treatment.

Stage One leaves the patient with 90% kidney function. The person can survive at this level, but it’s still necessary to detect the problem so causes and treatments can be addressed. If they don’t take steps at this point, the disease is very likely to progress to the next level. Stage Two leaves only 60-89% kidney function, as the damage to these organs has increased.

The difficulty is that there are no obvious symptoms of kidney dysfunction at either stage. This may lead to a lack of detection at a crucial time when the disease could have been nipped in the bud, or curtailed before it got much worse. So it’s essential that the person have their regular yearly physical checkups, including urine tests and extensive blood work. Even with no other physical symptoms, these tests can detect:

1) elevated creatinine levels (which indicate how well the kidneys are filtering out wastes)
2) elevated protein levels (another indication of inefficiency in filtering wastes)
3) elevated blood urea nitrogen levels (kidneys take urea from the blood and expel it in the urine, but if the blood levels are high, this is another hint of failing kidneys)

In addition to the potential for early detection with blood and urine tests, high blood pressure is a well known hint of problems with kidney function. In fact, it’s the most often mentioned symptom, which can either cause kidney disease, or be caused by it. So if a person’s blood pressure rises, this can be a spur to doing the urine and blood tests, either to detect kidney disease or rule it out. And all steps (medication, exercise, alterations in diet) must be taken to bring the blood pressure down.

If blood and urine tests indicate a possible problem, doctors can go further and take a kidney biopsy, do a CT scan, or perform an MRI. So even at these early stages, while it’s more difficult, it’s still possible to detect incipient kidney disease. What it takes is vigilance, and thorough, regular checkups.

Fetal death refers to the loss of the fetus at any stage of pregnancy. In the United States, there is no one particular definition for still birth. For statistical purposes, a fetal death is termed according to the gestational age. A fetal death before 20 weeks’ gestation is called a spontaneous abortion whereas a death after 20 weeks’ gestation is termed as stillbirth or fetal death.

Causes of death

In most of the cases, the reason behind such a death is unknown. In cases, where the cause has been detected, it is seen that the reason is either because of maternal, fetal or placental pathology. Fetal problems leading to fetal death include multiple gestations, genetic abnormality and others. On the other hand, hypertension, Rh diseases, any kind of infection may lead to fetal death too. Fetomaternal hemorrhage and premature rupture of membranes are some placental conditions that even lead tostill birth.

How are fetal deaths diagnosed?

The most common symptom of fetal death in most of the cases is the decrease in fetal movement. But this is not diagnostic and cannot prove death immediately. Still birth can be proved well by ultrasonographic examination. Stillbirth is only diagnosed by examining the absence of cardiac activity and fetal heart. This is where baby heart beat monitor play a big role.

Importance of a baby heart beat monitor in detecting stillbirth

The baby heart beat monitor is very popular among parents. This not only helps to hear the baby’s heart beat but also detect any kind of problem that can prove fatal.

The baby heart beat monitor helps to detect any kind of problems by constantly monitoring the fetal heartbeat. Not lonely you get to hear the heartbeat of your baby but also know if there is any kind of abnormality in the baby’s condition. The baby heart beat monitor is thus of great need to protect the fetus from dying.
If any kind of abnormality is detected, you can take immediate steps.
It’s not only the baby who always benefits from the baby heartbeat monitor, the mother’s health is also protected. In case, if the baby’s condition goes bad, mother’s life is also at risk. So, using baby heartbeat monitor can keep family members alert about the health of the yet to be born and the mother as well.

Recently, cancer became the number one killer of Americans under the age of 85, surpassing heart disease. While the good news is that fewer people are dying from cancer, in 2002 over 26,000 more Americans died from cancer than from heart disease. If you want to take steps to detect cancer quickly, here are some of the most effective tips:

1. Watch out for exhaustion.

It’s one thing to feel tired after working all day or finishing a workout. But it’s quite another thing to feel extremely tired most of the time. If you experience this kind of sensation, then you could be at risk of cancer, and especially certain types of cancer, such as colon cancer, or some varieties of stomach cancer. It’s important to note that while this can happen during the first stages of cancer, it can also occur as your level of blood takes a nosedive.

2. Atypical blood discharge.

This can happen during different stages of cancer. Some examples include blood in phlegm, uterus, or stool. If you observe these symptoms, then warning lights should go off in your head.

3. Note that a fever could be more than a fever.

If your body temperature is constantly above normal, then this could be a symptom of cancer, and especially types such as leukemia. The bad news is that this symptom often occurs during advanced stages of cancer. At this juncture, the body is losing the battle against infections, which impacts on your immune system and its ability to maintain the proper body temperature.

4. Be aware of how often you experience pain.

While pain tends to have negative connotations, it helps to inform us when we are suffering from certain disorders and diseases. Excessive pain is particularly common with certain types of cancer, such as bone cancer. While pain is a common part of everyday life, if it’s constant then you should certainly determine if it’s a symptom of cancer.

5. Keep an eye out for rapid weight loss.

In fact, any type of cancer can result in quick and steady weight loss. However, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer are some of the most common types of cancer that cause rapid weight loss. While gaining and losing a minimum amount of weight is normal, you should watch out for drastic weight loss, such as 10 pounds or more. While this can happen after first acquiring cancer, it could also happen later. So whether or not you’re on a diet, make sure to weigh yourself frequently, to keep an eye out for this sign of cancer.

6. Realize that cancer can be skin-deep.

In particular, keep an eye out for alterations in the tone and texture of your skin. Cancer that begins on the inside of your body can eventually start to impact on your skin as well. This can cause your skin to become redder or darker, itchy, and so on. Of course, you shouldn’t panic if you notice such changes, as it could be something else. But the worse thing you could do would be to ignore such changes to your skin.

Why do physicians use ECG/EKG?

Physicians use electrocardiograms investigations in evaluation of any abnormal heart disease symptoms. Patients who may require these tests are elderly individuals who experience sudden onset of weakness or fatigue or chest pain. It can also to investigate causes of sudden onset of rapid heartbeats.

In individuals who have a strong family history of heart disease and over the age of 40 years, ECG/EKG testing are used to detect any early signs of heart disease.

The optimum methodologies used to describe a doctors analysis of EKG / ECG testing is that they provide a window to how a healthy heart would look. This is the easiest way for them to see differences in heart rhythm, heart rate and other patterns of the heart electrical impulses. In cases where a patient’s heart shows abnormalities, additional testing is usually ordered to determine the nature of the problem, but first doctors will try to identify recurring patterns over time. In additions to these testing, physicians also use the ECG/EKG investigation to analyze the effects of medications or drugs.

Traditionally, 12-Lead ECG is performed at physicians clinic or in hospital. The downside to this type of testing is that it only records a few minutes of time. Since so many heart conditions are not occurring all of the time, this type of test is insufficient in detecting these problems.Also they require trained technicians to perform these investigations.

What are the other methods of Investigations abnormal heart rhythms?

Unlike the traditional 12-Lead ECG/EKG devices,today the burgeoning growth of technologies has made it possible to use single-lead ECG/EKG devices to measure hearts electrical activities.These devices use finger tips to measure the electrical signals from the heart.

The growth of personal health care technologies has resulted in tremendous advancement in these portable ECG/EKG devices. These device use ” Artificial Intelligence Technology “to detect any abnormal heart beats.

What are the limitations of these Portable ECG/EKG devices?

The conventional 12-Lead ECG/EKG devices are considered as gold standards,but however,they cannot be used at all times, especially in comfort of your home or at fitness centres as there are no trained technicians to operate these devices.These portable devices can however, be used any time, any where by the user when they need them.

However, caution needs to be used when using these devices in individuals with pacemaker-implanted in them or during pregnancy.

These devices have a role as screening function only and cannot replace the traditional 12 lead standardized ECG/EKG tests performed at medical centres.

Why do we need Portable ECG/EKG monitors?

There are some very staggering numbers released by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO, Heart disease and stroke kill some 17 million people a year, which is almost one-third of all deaths globally. By 2020, heart disease and stroke will become the leading cause of both death and disability worldwide, with the number of fatalities projected to increase to over 20 million a year and by 2030 to over 24 million a year. 81,100,000 people in the United States have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD) according to American Heart Association.