Dilatation of the Heart is a condition which is closely allied to hypertrophy of the heart, and which consists of an increase in the capacity of the cavities of the heart, with diminished contractile power. In simple dilatation, there is an increase in the capacities of the cavities, without any marked change in the walls of the organ. It is usually the result of some disease which has produced great muscular prostration, and which has interfered materially with nutrition. More frequently, however, dilatation is the result of valvular lesions, and is associated with hypertrophy, there being an increase in the thickness of the walls with a diminution of the contractile power. The hypertrophy from valvular lesions goes on increasing until it reaches a certain stage, when dilatation commences, the two conditions then being associated.
Atrophy of the heart is the opposite to hypertrophy, and signifies a wasting away of the muscular substance, and a diminution in the thickness of the walls of the heart. Its power is diminished in proportion to the degree of atrophy.
Fatty Degeneration of the heart consists in the deposition of particles of fat within the sarcolemma (the sheath which invests the fibrils), which are substituted for the proper muscular tissue. If the fatty degeneration exists to any extent the muscular walls present a yellowish color, and the heart is soft and flabby. This may be confined to one ventricle, or it may affect the inner layer of fibres, the outer layer remaining unchanged. Degeneration of the left ventricle occasions feebleness of the pulse. Difficulty in breathing is one symptom of this disease, especially when the right ventricle is affected. There is pallor, feeble circulation, cold extremities, and frequently dropsy. Fatty degeneration is more liable to occur in corpulent persons, and between the ages of forty and fifty years.
Angina Pectoris, also termed neuralgia of the heart, might be included among the diseases of the nervous system, but as it is usually associated with a derangement in the action of the heart, it may be properly considered in this connection. The pain varies in intensity, sometimes being very acute, at others assuming a milder form. The action of the heart is more or less disturbed. The beats are irregular, at times being strong, while again they are feeble. A feeling of numbness is experienced in those parts to which the pain penetrates. These paroxysms usually continue but a few minutes, although they sometimes last several hours. Persons suffering from angina pectoris are liable to sudden death. It is connected with ossification, or other organic changes of the heart. Usually these paroxysms, if the life of the patient continues, become more and more frequent. The danger is not to be measured by the intensity of the pain, but by the co-existing organic disease. Although it is not absolutely certain that organic disease is present in all cases of angina pectoris, yet the exceptions are so rare that when the signs of organic disease cannot be detected, it may be inferred that angina is not the real affection, or that the existing lesions escape observation. Those who suffer from this disease are, in the great majority of cases, of the male sex, and rarely under the age of forty.
Treatment. In the foregoing consideration of organic diseases of the heart, we have omitted to speak of their remedial management, for the obvious reason that unprofessional readers are unable to correctly distinguish between the various diseases of this vital organ; and it would, therefore, be useless for us to attempt to instruct them as to the medicinal treatment of the different cardiac affections.
In the vast majority of instances, diseases of the heart are not necessarily speedily fatal. Persons have been known to live twenty years or more with very extensive organic disease of this organ.
It is very important, however, that a correct diagnosis be made in the early stages of these diseases, in order that an appropriate course of hygiene and treatment may be adopted, which will check their progress. While we cannot cure extensive organic diseases of the heart, we can check their progress, and prolong life, and render the condition of the subject comparatively comfortable. Since we are able to diagnosticate with the utmost precision the various affections of the heart, and since the discovery of certain specific medicines which exert most beneficial effects, we are enabled to treat this class of maladies with the most gratifying results. Thus we have seen a case in a very advanced stage of the disease, with the breathing so difficult that the subject had been compelled to remain almost constantly in the sitting posture, in the greatest agony, for so long a time that immense bed sores had formed on the seat; in which the dropsy had become so extensive that the skin of the legs had burst open; and yet this patient, through the influence of a specific course of treatment, was speedily relieved, and enabled to live in a comparatively comfortable condition for many months.
One afflicted with heart disease should abstain from the use of all kinds of stimulants, tobacco, and whatever tends to lower vitality. His life should be an even one, free from all excitement of any kind whatsoever. He should avoid severe physical exertion, and everything which causes the heart to beat with undue frequency.
There are certain symptoms, the result of chlorosis (the green sickness), a deficiency of blood, dyspepsia, uterine disease, and certain nervous affections, which may simulate those of real organic disease, but the physician of education and experience, with a trained ear, is able to detect the difference speedily.