MOSCOW, April 5, Vladislav Strekopytov.The degree of elongation or sphericity of the heart can determine the risk of atrial fibrillation and heart failure, the researchers found. It seems that soon the picture will be able to predict the disease in order to start prevention long before the first symptoms.
«It does not remain constant»
The human body is a complex is the main driving force. It tirelessly pumps blood, delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues and organs.
The hearts depicted on postcards have nothing to do with reality. The heart muscle is more like a pear lying on its side. And proportions change over time.
«This happens under the influence of various factors, including age, lifestyle, health status,» says Aidar Sharafeev, MD, professor, head of the Hadassah Medical Moscow cardiovascular center. and chronic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes.»
In newborns, the heart is close to the ball, but by the age of 12 it is an oval. In hypertensive people, people who are prone to fullness, and men, this organ eventually acquires a conical shape, in women, especially asthenic physique, it often remains oval.
The size of the heart of a healthy person correlates with his weight and height, depends on substances, and the position — horizontal, vertical or inclined — is determined by the shape of the chest, age and blood pressure.
The length of this organ is ten to fifteen centimeters, the width at the base is eight to ten centimeters. Weight in men — from 274 to 385 grams, in women — from 203 to 302. Cardiomegaly — an increase in size beyond these limits — may indicate various diseases: from banal hypertension to heart disease.
Shadow Diagnosis
In cardiology, a morphological classification is accepted according to the shadow that the heart muscle leaves on radiographic images. There are five options: regular (classic «pear»), mitral (with a protrusion in the area of the mitral valve), aortic (with a «waist»), spherical and triangular (sometimes also called trapezoidal).
A whole list of normal and pathological conditions is associated with each. Therefore, it is impossible to unambiguously diagnose the disease from a picture. If suspicions arise, special studies are prescribed.
First of all, the functions of the main parts of the heart are checked. Modern instrumental methods — electrocardiography (ECG), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (echoCG, ultrasound), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and others — allow you to do this in detail. And if there are any anomalies, then clinicians, as a rule, identify them.
Scientists are looking for ways to early predict cardiovascular diseases, which rank first in the world among causes of death.
«The shape of the heart indicates deviations or conditions that affect the structure and function of the organ, anomalies. This can serve as an early predictor of cardiovascular diseases,» confirms Sharafeev.
Meaning
There are four chambers inside the heart: two atria and two ventricles. The left atrium and left ventricle form the «arterial heart» (according to the type of blood passing through it), the right ventricle and the right atrium form the «venous».
Usually, in the early diagnosis of cardiomyopathy — myocardial dysfunction associated with progressive heart failure — pay attention to the size of the chambers and the efficiency of contraction of the heart muscle. American researchers led by cardiologist David Ouyang, MD, from the Schmidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles proposed another criterion: the degree of sphericity (or roundness) of the heart.
«We found that people with spherical hearts were 31 percent more likely to have atrial fibrillation and 24 percent more likely to have cardiomyopathy,» Ouyang's press release said in a press release.
Scientists used data from the British biobank UK Biobank with genetic and clinical information on more than 500 thousand people, who were followed for several decades. After selecting 38,897 heart MRI images of people who were considered healthy at the time of the examination, cardiologists processed them using artificial intelligence, and then compared them with later medical records. long before the illness.
«This is a possible marker of the problem,» explains Shoah Clark, co-author of the paper, a preventive cardiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. «With deep learning techniques in large-scale analysis of medical images, we have gained new ways to evaluate.»
At the same time, the roundness of the left ventricle was singled out — the main element of the heart, the most powerful muscle chamber. Its walls are three to four times thicker than those of the neighbor on the right, as the systemic circulation begins in it and the blood is pumped under higher pressure.
Disease or genes< /h3>By examining the genetic profiles of patients, the scientists found four genes — PLN, ANGPT1, PDZRN3 and HLA DR/DQ — associated with both cardiomyopathy and heart sphericity. Three of them also correlate with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation.
However, it is not clear what is primary and what is secondary. Perhaps the reason is a genetic predisposition. At the same time, it is known that the heart becomes more rounded after injuries, stress, heart attacks.
Schmidt Heart and study co-author «Understanding what happens to the heart when it encounters disease, combined with reliable and intuitive imaging, is an important step in preventing two common cardiovascular diseases that impair quality of life.»
They plan to continue the work: it is necessary to find out how the morphology of other parts of the heart changes with various diagnoses. Scientists also want to use ultrasound images.