Autoimmune heart disease

Autoimmune heart disease

Autoimmune heart diseases are the effects of the body's own immune defense system mistaking cardiac antigens as foreign and attacking them leading to inflammation of the heart as a whole, or in parts. The commonest form of autoimmune heart disease is rheumatic heart disease or rheumatic fever.

Mechanism and Etiology

These are the typical mechanisms of autoimmunity. Autoantibodies or auto-toxic T lymphocyte mediated tissue destruction. The process is aided by neutrophils, the complement system, tumor necrosis factor alpha, etc.

Etiologically, these are most commonly seen in children with a history of sore throat caused by a streptococcal infection. This is similar to the post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. Here, the anti-bacterial antibodies cross react with the heart antigens causing inflammation.

Inflammatory damage leads to the following:
*Pericarditis: Here the pericardium gets inflamed. Acutely, it can cause pericardial effusion leading tocardiac tamponade and death. After healing, there may be fibrosis and adhesion of the pericardium with the heart leading to constriction of the heart and reduced cardiac function.
*Myocarditis: Here the muscle bulk of the heart gets inflamed. Inflamed muscles have reduced functional capacity. This may be fatal, if left untreated as is in a case of pancarditis. On healing, there will be fibrosis and reduced functional capacity.
*Endocarditis: Here the inner lining of the heart is inflamed, including the heart valves. This may cause a valve prolapse, adhesion of the adjacent cusps of these valves and occlusion of the flow tracts of blood through the heart causing diseases called valve stenosis.

Specific Clinical Manifestations

These depend on the amount of inflammation. These are covered in their relevant articles.

*Acute: Heart failure; pericardial effusion; etc
*Chronic: Valve diseases as noted above; Reduced cardiac output; Exercise intolerance.

Therapy

Intensive cardiac care and immuno-supressives including corticosteroids are helpful in the acute stage of the disease. Chronic phase has, mainly debility control and supportive care options.

References

1. Harrison's Guide to Internal Medicine.2. Robin's Pathology. ISBN 1416025340

Also Read

*Autoimmunity
*Heart
*Glomerulonephritis


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Valvular heart disease — Infobox Disease Name = PAGENAME Caption = DiseasesDB = ICD10 = ICD9 = ICDO = OMIM = MedlinePlus = eMedicineSubj = eMedicineTopic = MeshID = D006349 Valvular heart disease is any disease process involving one or more of the valves of the heart… …   Wikipedia

  • disease — diseasedly, adv. diseasedness, n. /di zeez /, n., v., diseased, diseasing. n. 1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection,… …   Universalium

  • disease — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) Condition of ill health Nouns 1. disease, illness, sickness, ailment, ailing; morbidity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition; complaint, disorder, malady; functional disorder. 2. condition, affliction,… …   English dictionary for students

  • Disease — Human disease redirects here. For the Slayer song, see Soundtrack to the Apocalypse. Flare up redirects here. For the Transformers character, see Flareup (Transformers). Medical condition redirects here. For the descriptive terminology using… …   Wikipedia

  • disease — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ common ▪ obscure, rare ▪ dangerous, serious ▪ mild ▪ acute …   Collocations dictionary

  • Disease — Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the… …   Medical dictionary

  • human disease — Introduction       an impairment of the normal state of a human being that interrupts or modifies its vital functions. health versus disease       Before human disease can be discussed, the meanings of the terms health, physical fitness, illness …   Universalium

  • nutritional disease — Introduction       any of the nutrient related diseases and conditions that cause illness in humans. They may include deficiencies or excesses in the diet, obesity and eating disorders, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease,… …   Universalium

  • Health and Disease — ▪ 2009 Introduction Food and Drug Safety.       In 2008 the contamination of infant formula and related dairy products with melamine in China led to widespread health problems in children, including urinary problems and possible renal tube… …   Universalium

  • digestive system disease — Introduction       any of the diseases that affect the human digestive tract. Such disorders may affect the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon), pancreas, liver, or biliary tract. A prevalent disorder of the digestive… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”