Reversible Forms of Heart Disease

¹ Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.

In conclusion, some examples of cardiovascular disease have been listed wherein the heart itself may be normal or only slightly diseased, but by virtue of extrinsic factors acting upon the heart or through the cardiovascular system, the heart is precipitated into severe congestive heart failure. As a result, the patient may become invalided and even may die as a result of this disturbed cardiovascular function. If recognition of the extracardiac disease is made early before structural changes in the heart become irreversible, treatment of the extracardiac disease will usually result in cure. Failure to recognize extrinsic factors as they express themselves in the cardiovascular system usually leads to irreversible changes in the cardiovascular system with ultimate cardiac death. The saying is applicable to the heart that it is more often sinned against than sinning.