A heart biopsy, also called myocardial biopsy or cardiac biopsy, is an invasive procedure to detect heart disease that involves using a bioptome (a small catheter with a grasping device on the end) to obtain a small piece of heart muscle tissue that is sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Why Do I Need a Myocardial Biopsy?
Your doctor uses myocardial biopsy to:
Evaluate or confirm the presence of rejection after heart transplant.
To prepare yourself for a heart biopsy you should know these things:
The procedure takes place in the hospital. Usually, you will come to the hospital the day of the test and it is performed as an outpatient procedure. In some cases, you may need to be admitted to the hospital the night before the procedure.
You can wear whatever you like to the hospital, but it is a good idea to leave valuables, such as jewelry, at home. You will wear a hospital gown during the procedure.
Your doctor or nurse will give you specific instructions about what you can and cannot eat or drink before the procedure. In general, food and fluids are restricted for 6 to 8 hours before the test.
Ask your doctor what medications should be taken on the day of your heart biopsy. Be sure to tell your doctor if you are taking any nutrition supplements or herbal preparations, and tell your doctor which over-the-counter medications you are taking. Please bring a list of all of your medications and the current dosages with you.
If you have diabetes, ask your doctor how to adjust your medications the day of your test.
Tell your doctor and/or nurses if you are allergic to anything.
Arrange for someone to drive you home after the test.
If you normally wear dentures or a hearing device, plan to wear them during the procedure to help with communication. If you wear glasses, plan to bring them as well.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle and can be caused by a variety of infections, conditions, and viruses. Symptoms of myocarditis include chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, and fluid accumulation in the lungs. Treatment mainly involves preventing heart failure with medication and diet, as well as monitoring for heart rhythm abnormalities.
Dilated Cardiomyopathy is a condition where the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased because the heart's main pumping chamber is enlarged and weakened. Symptoms of dilated cardiomyopathy include chest pain, heart failure, swelling of the lower extremities, fatigue, weight gain, fainting, palpitations, dizziness and blood clots.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affects many people today. Many people with HCM have no symptoms or only minor symptoms, and live a normal life. Other people develop symptoms, which progress and worsen as heart function worsens.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy, the rarest form of cardiomyopathy, is a condition in which the walls of the lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles) are abnormally rigid and lack the flexibility to expand as the ventricles fill with blood.
The pumping or systolic function of the ventricle may be normal but the diastolic function (the ability of the heart to fill with blood) is abnormal. Therefore, it is harder for the ventricles to fill with blood, and with time, the heart loses the ability to pump blood properly, leading to heart failure.
The idea of replacing a bad organ with a good one has been documented in
ancient mythology. The first real organ transplants were probably skin grafts
that may have been done in India as early as the second century B.C. The first
heart transplant in any animal is credited to Vladimer Demikhov. Working in
Moscow in 1946, Demikhov switched the hearts between two dogs. The dogs survived
the surgery. The first heart transplant in human beings was done in South Africa
in 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard; the patient only lived 18 days. Most of the
research that led to successful heart transplantation took place in the
United States at Stanford University under the leadership of Dr. Norman Shumway.
Once Stanford started reporting better results, other centers started doing
heart transplants. However, successful transplantation of a human heart was
not ready for widespread clinical application until medications were developed
...
Heart RSS
Healthy Living Tips
