Heart and Circulation Terms

The blocking of an artery by a clot or foreign material.

Enalapril is an ACE inhibitor that relaxes blood vessels, used broadly to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.

Endocarditis is inflammation of the heart's inner lining and valves, most often from bacterial infection reaching the bloodstream and heart tissue.

The single layer of flat cells lining every vessel, acting as a non-stick surface and as a control panel for blood flow.

Surgery to remove a diseased lung, part of the pericardium (membrane covering the heart), part of the diaphragm (muscle between the lungs and the abdomen), and part of the parietal pleura (membrane…

A rhythm-control drug rather than a rate-control one, limited to hearts without structural disease because of a documented safety concern.

A substance used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help make clear pictures of the brain, spine, heart, soft tissue of joints, and inside bones.

Tumors that spread to the heart from cancer elsewhere in the body are considerably more common than cancer that originates in the heart itself.

A procedure to deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver.

A block in blood flow to the liver.

The major blood vessel that carries blood to the liver.

The vein that carries everything absorbed from the gut straight to the liver before the rest of the body sees it.

Nothing is usually felt, so damage to the vessels of the eyes, kidneys and brain accumulates long before anything announces it.

A form of nutrition that is delivered into a vein.

Raised pressure rarely announces itself, so it is usually found on a routine check rather than because anything felt wrong.

Blood pressure that is lower than expected for a person or situation.

The inferior vena cava is the body's largest vein, returning oxygen poor blood from the lower body and abdomen to the heart.

Within an artery (blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to tissues and organs in the body).

A type of radiation therapy used to treat liver cancer that is advanced or has come back.

The introduction of fluids and drugs directly into the carotid artery, the main artery in the neck that carries blood from the heart to the brain.