How do you check for heart problems?

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asked Jan 10, 2022 in Other- Health by 670ms (1,590 points)
How do you check for heart problems?

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answered Jan 10, 2022 by registeredname (2,770 points)
Some ways to check for heart problems are.

Blood tests.
Electrocardiogram (ECG)
Exercise stress test.
Echocardiogram (ultrasound)
Nuclear cardiac stress test.
Coronary angiogram.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Coronary computed tomography angiogram (CCTA)

Some signs that you may have heart problems include.

Chest pain, chest tightness, chest pressure and chest discomfort (angina)
Shortness of breath.
Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in your legs or arms if the blood vessels in those parts of your body are narrowed.
Pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper abdomen or back.

To check if your heart is healthy you can use a stethoscope and also have your heart rate checked.

Your heart rate should normally range between 60 to 100 beats per minute, although many doctors prefer their patients to be in the 50 to 70-beat range.

If you train regularly, your per-minute heart rate may be as low as 40, which typically indicates excellent physical condition.

A heartbeat should sound like a lub and a dup sound.

A normal heartbeat has two sounds, a lub (sometimes called S1) and a dub (S2).

These sounds are caused by the closing of valves inside your heart.

If there are problems in your heart, there may be additional or abnormal sounds.

Normally, two distinct sounds are heard through the stethoscope: a low, slightly prolonged “lub” (first sound) occurring at the beginning of ventricular contraction, or systole, and produced by closure of the mitral and tricuspid valves, and a sharper, higher-pitched “dup” (second sound).

When listening for heart sounds you use the bell of the stethoscope.

The bell of the stethoscope is used for listening to low frequency sounds while the diaphragm of the stethoscope is used for listening to higher frequency sounds.

The bell is best for detecting lower pitch sounds, like some heart murmurs, and some bowel sounds.

It is used for the detection of bruits, and for heart sounds (for a cardiac exam, you should listen with the diaphragm, and repeat with the bell).

The reason a stethoscope has two different sides for listening is one side of the stethoscope is used to listen to low frequency sounds and the other side of the stethoscope is used to listen to high frequency sounds.

The bell end of the stethoscope is the end of the stethoscope that is used to listen to low frequency sounds.

The other side of the stethoscope which is the diaphragm is used to listen higher frequency sounds.

Most times doctors use the larger part of the stethoscope to listen to your stomach and heart and the smaller side of the stethoscope to listen to your wrist and pulse when taking your blood pressure.

So one side of the stethoscope lets you listen to higher frequency sounds such as the heart and the other side lets you listen to lower frequency sounds such as your pulse.

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