In this video I'm going to break down the pathophysiology of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,
so you can finally understand it for nursing school.
And make sure you're subscribed to this channel so you don't miss out on any videos I've got
for you to help you succeed in nursing school.
Let's do this!
Cardiomyopathy simply means that the heart is weakened and it can't pump as much blood
as it should be able to.
And in this case, we're talking about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
When you think of the word "hypertrophic" think enlargement.
So during hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the heart enlarging, the walls of the heart are
getting bigger.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is primarily genetic, and what happens is over time is the walls
of the heart start to thicken.
So I'm going to put the pathophysiology of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy into steps for
you so you can understand it better.
You won't find these steps in a textbook or anything, their not official steps, I just
broke it down this way to make learning the pathophysiology easier for you.
So step one of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the walls inside the heart start to thicken.
And hypertrophic cardiomyopathy typically impacts the left ventricle, so that left ventricle
is the one that's getting bigger and bigger.
Step number 2: as the ventricle walls get bigger and bigger, less blood is able to fill
the left ventricle because there's just less room inside.
The ventricle walls are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and the space inside of
the ventricle is decreasing, so less blood can fill it.
Step number 3: is now that the ventricle walls are big, and thick, it gets stiff and it can't
stretch as easily.
So think of it this way: just like when you work out at the gym, you need to stretch afterwards,
or else your muscles will be really tight and you won't be able to walk much the next
day (or is that just me??).
The heart is a muscle, too, so it's basically like your heart is going to the gym 24/7 and
getting big, big muscles, but it never stretches afterwards.
So the heart muscles get stiff, and they're not as flexible anymore.
So the ventricle can't stretch as much to allow blood to fill.
During step number 4: the heart can't pump as much blood out as it should be able to.
With the walls of the heart thickening and tightening, the left ventricle isn't able
to fill with as much blood as before, and so it's not able to pump out as much.
This means that the cardiac output decreases, because there is less blood going to the body.
If you want a deep dive into cardiac output, we have a video for you on that.
I'll pop up a card right here and I'll put the link down below in the description for
you, too if you'd like to check that out.
Now step number 5: in some cases, the opening to the aorta can get blocked by the mitral
valve.
Because the ventricles are so big, the mitral valve gets sucked backwards by the pressure
when the ventricles contract.
This causes the aortic valve and the opening to the aorta to be blocked, and it causes
some blood to back flow into the left artium, so less blood can get out to the body.
This is called obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - the mitral valve are actually obstructing
the blood from being able to move out of the body.
This will cause even less blood to be able to get out to the body, because the blood
can't get past the mitral valve and some of the blood is back flowing into the left atrium.
If this step-by-step breakdown helped you understand all of this, write LOVE in the
comments below.
And make sure to check out the other cardiac videos we have here for you, and of course
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I'll see you in the next video.