Structural Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Dysfunction and hEDS/HSD
摘要
From a neurocardiologic perspective, there are two types of disorders: structural heart disorders and functional heart disorders. The heart, in a sense, has a nervous system of its own. It is primarily the unique electrical connectivity of the cardiac muscle that coordinates the muscle activities of the Atria and Ventricles, establishing the rhythms of the heart and pumping blood to the body. Thus, structural heart disorders involve electrical disorders of the heart muscle, as well as structural disorders of the heart as a whole. However, the heart is still a muscle. Like any other muscle in the body, it is innervated by nerves. However, the heart is a special muscle in that it is innervated by two nerves, the parasympathetic and sympathetic (P&S) nerves of the autonomic nervous system. Disorder in the P&S nerves causes disordered cardiac function, which mimics or causes different types of heart disease. In these cases, the P&S nervous systems are dysfunctional, causing an abnormal change in cardiac function leading to characteristic symptoms of structural heart disorders, which eventually (if the P&S dysfunction is not corrected) results in a chronic disease. Structural heart disorders are discussed.