Pulmonary heart disease, also known as cor pulmonale, is the enlargement and failure of the right ventricle of the heart as a response to increased vascular resistance or high blood pressure in the lungs.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue to advancing the understanding of the following issues: development and progression of disease, diagnosis of disease, treatment of disease, disease prevention, reduction of health care disparities within the American population, and advancing the effectiveness of the US medical system. NHLBI's Director is Gary H. Gibbons (2012–present).
Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease ; to correct congenital heart disease; or to treat valvular heart disease from various causes, including endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, and atherosclerosis. It also includes heart transplantation.
The orange ribbon is a symbol adopted for a very wide variety of uses in different places.
A vascular bypass is a surgical procedure performed to redirect blood flow from one area to another by reconnecting blood vessels. Often, this is done to bypass around a diseased artery, from an area of normal blood flow to another relatively normal area. It is commonly performed due to inadequate blood flow (ischemia) caused by atherosclerosis, as a part of organ transplantation, or for vascular access in hemodialysis. In general, someone's own vein (autograft) is the preferred graft material for a vascular bypass, but other types of grafts such as polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polyethylene terephthalate (Dacron), or a different person's vein (allograft) are also commonly used. Arteries can also serve as vascular grafts. A surgeon sews the graft to the source and target vessels by hand using surgical suture, creating a surgical anastomosis.
The DASH diet is a dietary pattern promoted by the U.S.-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to prevent and control hypertension. The DASH diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods. It includes meat, fish, poultry, nuts, and beans, and is limited in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, red meat, and added fats. In addition to its effect on blood pressure, it is designed to be a well-balanced approach to eating for the general public. DASH is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a healthy eating plan. The DASH diet is one of three healthy diets recommended in the 2015–2020 US Dietary Guidelines, which also include the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet. The American Heart Association (AHA) considers the DASH diet "specific and well-documented across age, sex and ethnically diverse groups."
National Wear Red Day is a day in February when many people wear red to show their support for the awareness of heart disease.
Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. Symptoms include coughing up sputum, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Bronchitis can be acute or chronic.
Obstructive lung disease is a category of respiratory disease characterized by airway obstruction. Many obstructive diseases of the lung result from narrowing (obstruction) of the smaller bronchi and larger bronchioles, often because of excessive contraction of the smooth muscle itself. It is generally characterized by inflamed and easily collapsible airways, obstruction to airflow, problems exhaling, and frequent medical clinic visits and hospitalizations. Types of obstructive lung disease include; asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although COPD shares similar characteristics with all other obstructive lung diseases, such as the signs of coughing and wheezing, they are distinct conditions in terms of disease onset, frequency of symptoms, and reversibility of airway obstruction. Cystic fibrosis is also sometimes included in obstructive pulmonary disease.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce mucus. COPD progressively worsens, with everyday activities such as walking or dressing becoming difficult. While COPD is incurable, it is preventable and treatable. The two most common types of COPD are emphysema and chronic bronchitis and have been the two classic COPD phenotypes. Emphysema is defined as enlarged airspaces (alveoli) whose walls have broken down resulting in permanent damage to the lung tissue. Chronic bronchitis is defined as a productive cough that is present for at least three months each year for two years. Both of these conditions can exist without airflow limitation when they are not classed as COPD. Emphysema is just one of the structural abnormalities that can limit airflow and can exist without airflow limitation in a significant number of people. Chronic bronchitis does not always result in airflow limitation but in young adults who smoke the risk of developing COPD is high. Many definitions of COPD in the past included emphysema and chronic bronchitis, but these have never been included in GOLD report definitions. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis remain the predominant phenotypes of COPD but there is often overlap between them and a number of other phenotypes have also been described. COPD and asthma may coexist and converge in some individuals. COPD is associated with low-grade systemic inflammation.
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study is a multi-site, prospective, biracial cohort study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The ARIC Study was designed to investigate the etiology and clinical outcomes of atherosclerosis. A total of 15,792 middle-aged men and women were enrolled from four U.S. communities:
Martha Vaughan was an American biochemist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. She holds the title of emeritus scientist in the Laboratory of Metabolic Regulation and previously served as chief of NHLBI’s Laboratory of Cellular Metabolism. At the NIH, much of her work has focused on cell signaling, cellular regulation, lipid metabolism, and the identification of key proteins associated with cholera toxin and pertussis toxin. Vaughan first came to the NIH in the agency’s fledgling National Heart Institute, now NHLBI, and with the title of senior assistant surgeon worked on protein synthesis in the Building 3 laboratory of biochemist and public scientist Christian B. Anfinsen, Ph.D., who went on to share the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Clare M. Waterman is a cell biologist who has worked on understanding the role of the cytoskeleton in cell migration. Waterman is a Distinguished Investigator, Chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics, and Director of the Cell and Developmental Biology Center at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda MD, USA. Waterman has received several awards and honors, including the Sackler International prize in Biophysics, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, and the Arthur S. Flemming Award for Public Service. In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She currently serves on the editorial boards of eLife, Current Biology and Journal of Microscopy.
National Safety Month (NSM) is an annual month-long observance in the United States each June.
Stephanie L. Constant is an American immunologist and science administrator. She was an associate professor at George Washington University and a scientific review officer at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute before becoming chief of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Office of Scientific Review in 2017.
Gypsyamber D'Souza is an American epidemiologist. She is a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. D'Souza researches infectious diseases, cancer prevention, and translational epidemiology. She is a principal investigator of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study / Women's Interagency HIV Study Combined Cohort Study (Mwccs.org).
The Strong Heart Study is an ongoing cohort study of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors among American Indian men and women. The original cohort began in 1984 with 4,549 participants ages 35–74 from 13 tribal nations and communities in Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The need for specific ethnic and cultural understanding and sensitivities was recognized from the onset, so the study has a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. Community members were involved in all stages of conception, design, and implementation of the research. Now in its seventh phase, the extensive research has led to many important findings about heart disease and unique risk factors in native populations. It is a project funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The study maintains field centers in Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, and Arizona and a coordinating center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) is a non-profit organization started by the World Health Organization and the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 1997 to improve care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They have organized the annual awareness day, World COPD Day, every November since 2002.
