Alcoholic cardiomyopathy: treatment
Cardiomyopathy leads to an increase in the size of the ventricles and atria - all the chambers of the heart. Walls of partitions and chambers thus become thinner, stretch, become flabby and lose tonus. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy reduces the values of fractions of the left ventricle ejection of the heart. As a result, the tone of the heart worsens and the heart rhythm is disturbed. Basically, with the help of ultrasound, alcoholic cardiomyopathy is diagnosed, treatment is carried out in a complex way.
Therapy of alcoholic cardiomyopathy
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy is caused by the toxic effect of ethanol on the myocardium of the heart, in which the protein and vitamin imbalances act only as a background of the underlying disease. Therefore, the therapy of alcoholic cardiomyopathy is mainly to correct congestive heart failure in its expanded or latent form. With congestive alcoholic cardiomyopathy, which is clearly expressed by cardiac insufficiency, treatment is performed in a therapeutic hospital.
An important condition for improving the condition of the heart is a fairly long bed rest. It helps to recover even gravely ill. According to conservative opinion, bed rest should last about three months. A number of studies have shown that, with prolonged bed rest, 70% of patients with severe form of alcoholic cardiomyopathy experience significant improvements. And in 40% of the heart size is reduced to normal. More recent studies show that so long a bed rest can not be followed. One month is enough. But lying patient is easier to control, so he quietly did not drink alcohol.
If complex therapeutic treatment is performed, alcoholic cardiomyopathy recedes. Important components of treatment of patients are correction of electrolyte, vitamin and other metabolic disorders that accompany chronic alcohol intoxication. First of all, it is necessary to limit the intake of sodium( table salt).Provide the patient with a full-fledged diet. Food should contain a sufficient amount of easily digestible proteins and vitamins. An additional vitamin therapy is provided, including cocarboxylase and all B vitamins. Potassium( potassium chloride, potassium orotate, panangin) preparations are needed to restore the potassium ion deficiency.
Stem Cell Treatment
In case of severe form of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, when a heart transplant is not necessary, a number of clinics offer an alternative to a dangerous operation - the treatment of cardiomyopathy with stem cells. Treatment works individually. Own stem cells are considered to be the only "bricks" in the human body, capable of restoring the tissue of the heart, accelerate the processes of cellular regeneration and establish the regular functioning of the heart muscle. However, because of the novelty of the method, its effectiveness is still being studied. Therefore, the treatment of alcoholic cardiomyopathy must be combined with classical methods of treatment.
Stem cells are taken from the patient himself. The most viable are used to grow the required amount of material. Then they are introduced into the body in two stages. Damaged cardiomyopathy cells of the expanded connective tissue and heart cells are replaced by active and healthy stem cells. They undergo a unique process of transformation and become cardiomyoblasts - cells of the heart. The population of the heart cells is updated to healthy ones. Muscle tissue replaces the connective tissue, resulting in restoring the contractile function of the heart. The sizes of chambers of heart of auricles and ventricles, and also its walls are normalized. The cardiac muscle function is restored, the cardiac output fraction increases, the tone of the heart sounds becomes clear, the heart rhythm is normalized. However, one must understand that the treatment of alcoholic cardiomyopathy with stem cells is not a cheap procedure.
