Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood PressureOsborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Science
Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure
Osborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Blood pressure; Heart -- Diseases
Careful questioning, and if necessary scientific examination of the
stomach, may show that the patient has hyperchlorhydria, ulcer of
the stomach or duodenum, dilatation of the stomach, or some growth
in the stomach as a cause for the pain referred to the region of the
heart. Gallstones in the gallbladder may also give such referred
pains. Other lesions in the abdomen may cause pain referred to the
cardiac region. Not only will the demonstration of these causes and
their treatment assure the patient that he has not neuralgia of his
heart, but also, if curable, the cause of the pain may be removed.
Dry pleurisy of the left chest is not an infrequent cause of these
pains, and of course serious disease of the lungs, as tuberculosis,
unresolved pneumonia, pleuritic adhesions, ennphysema and tumor
growths, may all be the cause of a referred cardiac pain, the heart
being disturbed secondarily.
A stomach cramp is a not infrequent cause of serious pain referred
to the heart, and the rare condition of cardiospasm must also be
remembered as a cause of pseudo-angina. In other words, the
interpretation of these pseudo-anginas means a careful diagnosis of
the condition, and, as previously stated, not only must the above-
named causes be excluded, but also the reverse must be remembered:
that many disturbances treated as other conditions really are due to
cardiac weakness. The diagnosis of a real angina pectoris from a
false angina may not be difficult. A real angina generally occurs
after exertion of some kind, be that exertion ever so slight. False
angina may occur at any minute with or without exertion. Pain
referred to the heart which awakens a patient at night is not likely
to be a true angina; nervous patients are prone to have such night
attacks of cardiac disturbance of various kinds. A true angina
causes the patient's face to look anxious and pale, with the
breathing repressed. A false angina shows no such paleness, allows
deep breathing, crying and lamenting, and allows the patient to move
about in bed, or about the room. The true angina makes the patient
absolutely still and quiet: he hardly dares to speak or tell what he
is feeling and fearing. True angina is of course much more frequent
in older persons, while false anginas occur in the young, and
especially in the neurotic. With all the other manifestations of
hysteria, palpitation and cardiac pain are often symptoms.
It should not be decided, however apparently self-evident that a
referred pain is not due to cardiac lesion until a careful
examination of the patient has been made. Real cardiac disturbance
can of course occur at any time in a neurotic or hysterical patient,
and there should be no mistakes of omission from carelessness or
neglect on the part of the physician.
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