Cor Pulmonale is increased strain on the right side of the heart due to lung diseases that increase the pressure of the blood flowing through the lungs. The right ventricle tries to push blood through the diseased and usually scarred lung via vessels called pulmonary arteries, but has trouble doing this because of the scarring, resulting in increased pressure in the artery and therefore the right ventricle. The right ventricle compensates by getting bigger, and ultimately stops working so well.
"Cor pulmonale" is a failure of the right side of the heart usually caused by high blood pressure. Symptoms of cor pulmonale include shortness of breath, wheezing, and swelling of the abdomen, ankles, and feet.
Any respiratory disease or malfunction that affects the circulatory system of the lungs may lead to cor pulmonale
Cor pulmonale
This condition can lead to heart failure
Cor pulmonale
Impaired Gas Exchanged related to perfusion problem Decreased cardiac output related ventricular inefficiency
A pulmonary embolism is a tissue fragment (part of a blood clot, fat, amniotic fluid, part of a tumour or bullet fragment) that became loose in the blood stream and was carried by the blood stream to a different location. A pulmonary embolism is, in most cases, a thromboembolism (part of a blood clot), which is carried from the deep veins of the legs or the pevis. It travels up the blood stream, through the inferior vena cava, into the heart, and subsequently into the pulmonary artery. In the pulmonary artery, it arrests, forming a potentially life threating occlusion. Cor pulmonale is hypertrophy of the right ventricle due to chronic pulmonary hypertension. The pulmonay hypertension means that the right ventricle has to pump blood with greater force, causing its muscle to hypertrophy (enlarge in size). Therefore, to summarize, a pulmonary embolism is an obstruction of pulmonary blood flow while cor pulmonale is the morphological change of the right ventricle due to pulmonary hypertension.
85% of patients diagnosed with cor pulmonale have COPD
The prognosis for cor pulmonale is poor, particularly because it occurs late in the process of serious disease
Cor pulmonale is best prevented by prevention of COPD and other irreversible diseases that lead to heart failure
A large pulmonary thromboembolism (blood clot) may lead to acute cor pulmonale
Treatment of cor pulmonale is aimed at increasing a patient's exercise tolerance and improving oxygen levels of the arterial blood
Cor Pulmonale
Cor pulmonale
Tests used to support a diagnosis of cor pulmonale may include arterial blood gas analysis, pulmonary function tests, x-rays, MRIs, and hematocrit
They include chronic coughing, wheezing, weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Edema (abnormal buildup of fluid), weakness, and discomfort in the upper chest may be evident in cor pulmonale
This condition can lead to heart failure
right-sided heart failure, when the right ventricle is hypertrophied or dilated which is secondary to pulmonary hypertension (usu. d/t pulmonary embolism in acute cor pulmonale, but d/t COPD in chronic cor pulmonale)
Cor pulmonale