Cardiovascular system >>>> Cardiac asthma

Cardiac asthma.

Cardiac asthma is a serious pathological condition, which is based on left-sided heart failure. Cardiac asthma is not considered a disease, but only a set of symptoms characteristic of acute heart failure.

The characteristic signs of cardiac asthma are periodically occurring rather prolonged attacks of suffocation, usually developing at night. In addition to asthma attacks, other symptoms of cardiac asthma appear:

Cough,
Shortness of breath,
Hoarse breathing,
Rapid breathing,
Feeling out of breath,
Blue red border of lips,
Blue discoloration of the nail plates and fingers,
Cold perspiration is possible.

The causes of cardiac asthma are directly related to the development of left ventricular heart failure, which, in turn, is the result of disorders in the pulmonary circulation, and develops against a background of diseases that overload the left heart: hypertension, mitral stenosis, cardiosclerosis, and others. Pulmonary hypertension plays an important role in the increase in the signs of cardiac asthma, which leads to excess blood volume (stagnation of blood), washing the bronchi, which slows down the blood flow of the lungs, going in the opposite direction, and disrupts their ventilation. The increased blood filling of the capillaries of the lungs leads to a violation of the permeability of the walls of the capillaries and the release of part of the plasma outside the circulatory system into the pulmonary space, which causes edema of the lung tissue. At the same time, the blood composition changed towards an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide leads to periodic irritations of the respiratory center of the brain and the development of suffocation and cough reflex.

Cardiac asthma is a dangerous condition that can cause bronchospasm, respiratory failure, pulmonary edema and death, and therefore requires an immediate call to an ambulance doctor.

Treatment for cardiac asthma involves relieving acute symptoms and treating the disease causing the above symptoms:

To reduce blood flow in the pulmonary circulation, the victim is given a sitting position (in the lying position, an attack of cardiac asthma will intensify),
It is recommended to apply heat to the lower extremities (hot heating pad, hot bath, etc.),
Control the pressure and, when it rises, take a capoten tablet (you can take part of the tablet - 1/4 or 1/2), or nitroglycerin (one tablet every 5 to 10 minutes),
Organize access to fresh air,
It is possible to regulate peripheral blood circulation using the technique of applying tourniquets on the lower extremities to create artificial stagnation of venous blood in the periphery (the duration of the tourniquet application is no more than 20-25 minutes), but this is done in the absence of contraindications for applying a tourniquet to the limbs (edema, thrombophlebitis, angina pectoris, endarteritis, with a heart attack and other diseases) and under pulse control (it is the veins that should be clamped, not the arteries, and the pulse serves as proof of the correct application of the tourniquets),
Hospitalization is carried out in severe cases. In the hospital, it is possible to carry out inhalations with oxygen, and if necessary, in case of pulmonary edema, connect to a ventilator,
Under the supervision of a doctor, they relieve pain syndromes and reduce the excitability of the respiratory center (they combine antipsychotics and analgesics).