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ChiraBeats

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Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

Alright so I remember just a handful of months ago, I found out I was a cardiophile. Or at least that I had something in common with these people who gathered under that umbrella. I had absolutely clue what that meant or really anything, and trying to interact with the community led to a lot of confusion. Seriously, just the vocabulary we use was nearly enough to scare me off thinking I'd wandered into a textbook. So I figure it would probably be helpful to get a collection of resources together targetted specifically at new cardiophiles. Some of the things I want to include:

Intro to heart sounds
Intro to heart parts
Intro to stethoscopes
Intro to the cardiophile community online (Tumblr, HBP, us, YouTube, maybe some history on the guys who came before all of us)

Going to be using this topic to piece it all together and to accept feedback from all of you lovable nubs.

ChiraBeats

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Re: Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

Reserved post, this is where the guide will be put together. Give me a minute to make something up.

ChiraBeats

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Re: Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

Incoming note dump post please ignore

Actually don't ignore, if you see anything that's wrong in here please say something.

Beginner's Guide to Cardio
    Vocab
        EKG/ECG
            Echocardiogram
            EKG is more common, and also German
            Measures electrical activity of the heart, can use anywhere from 3 electrodes on up to do it.
        S#
            If you see someone talking about S1, or S2, they're talking about the different sounds the heart makes.
            Out of the "Lub dub" sound the heart makes, S1 is Lub and S2 is Dub. Sometimes you get S3 or S4 sounds coming into the picture as well.
            Click here for more on heart sounds
        PVC
            An extra half a heartbeat, when your ventricles get too trigger happy.
        PAC
            An whole extra heartbeat, when your atria get too trigger happy. Ventricles always tag along for the ride.
        Skips
            An extra heartbeat, either a PVC or a PAC.
        Murmur
            #
    Health
        Stress
            Source #3
            Stress can actually kill you.
            Lots of stress can cause your heart to actually warp shape, with the bottom bit of your heart expanding and ballooning out.
                Sometimes called broken heart syndrome because you see it more often in people whose spouses have died. Pretty stressful situation to be in.
                Other types of stress can pull that garbage, too, though. Don't stress about it, whatever it is.
        Skips
            Source #2
            Heart skips are usually pretty harmless and normal.
            You can try preventing them by making sure you're all stocked up on all the good stuff.
                Like magnesium. Great stuff, magnesium.
    Safety
        Poppers
            https://cardiobear.tumblr.com/post/1513 … sh-not-end
        Electricity
            Just. Don't. Not anywhere near your heart.
        Play it safe
            Plenty of people don't come back when they start screwing with the heart. You just don't often hear about it because, well, they don't come back.
                Don't be one of those people. It'd suck.
        Have a buddy
            If you're going to ignore all this, have a buddy who can call an ambulance if something goes wrong.
                Doesn't need to be someone IRL, just someone who can get you help if you need it.
        Better safe than sorry.
    Heart basics
        Sounds
            Paraphrase source #1
        Behaviors
            How the heart works
        Auscultation spots
            Where even are they
    Heart not-so-basics
        EKG in depth
            Frickin' EKGs, how do they work?
        Echocardiograms
            Dopplers
                How do they work?
            Echocardiograms: Dopplers on steroids
                ultrasonic imaging of the heart
                    These days you can get real time 3D imaging of a heart
                    Back in the day we only had like 2D images.
                    kids these days don't know how good they got it
        Stethoscopes
            Source #4, #5.
            Remember: The diaphragm and the bell are both for listening.
                The head rotates and lets you pick which one to listen to on *most* stethoscopes.
            Diaphragm
                lets you listen to higher pitched sounds like normal heart and breathing sounds.
            Bell
                easier to hear lower pitched sounds, like some heart murmurs.
                press gently for lower sounds, firmly for high sounds.
                    same applies for some diaphragms I guess? Read the manual.
        Murmurs, skips, and other heart noises
            Murmurs
                Source #1
                Murmurs are little wooshing/whirring noises you hear from blood flowing across a heart valve.
                Functional/innocent murmurs are just harmless sounds, can be caused by exercise or it can be audible if you're particularly thin.
                A pathological murmur is what you gotta be worried about, it can sometimes be caused by blood flowing backwards where it should be.
            Skips
                Source #2
                Harmless, normally.
                Can be a bit uncomfortable
                    Lots of people enjoy the sensation
        Tachycardia, bradycardia, and other heart rhythms
            Tachycardia
                Tachycardia, for adults, is whenever your heart rate rises about 100BPM. What people usually mean when you hear this is specifically if your resting heart rate is above 100BPM. Normal rate is around the 50-90 mark.
                Normal if you're exercising or just generally being active, less normal if you're just hanging out. Too high and your heart starts working less efficiently.
            Bradycardia
                Bradycardia is when your heart rate drops below 60BPM. This doesn't usually cause any issues until you drop past 50BPM, and at that point you're looking at weakness, dizziness, and fainting.
                If you're sleeping (or particularly athletic), it's normal to drop down to about 40-60BPM. But when you wake up, your heart should be waking up with you.
            These are both really only "harmless" or "normal" when it's sinus tachycardia or bradycardia. Which AFAICT means that the whole heart is slowed or sped up equally.
    Guide to the cardiophile community online
        Tumblr
            Might well be one of the biggest bunches of cardiophiles.
            Huge amount of not-OC compared to OC.
            Can be hard to get started since you basically have to build your own network just how you like it.
        Cardioauthors
            Forum dedicated to heart literature.
            Not much active discussion going on, but has a good collection of content.
            Good place to be if you like writing.
        HBP
            Right now, it's the main cardiophile website. Been around forever.
            Lots of people from all over the world.
            Lots of original audio and video from lots of people.
            Not much active discussion going on. Mostly just people sharing links to shows/movies/games/books with heart content.
        H2H
            Mostly discussion
            Just getting started
            good amount of original audio and video, more coming in at a pretty good rate
            kinda small, but growing
            friendly, hopefully?
        YouTube
            Tons and tons of audio and video
            Files easily stolen
            Like ridiculously easily.
            If you upload them, they can be stolen, so be prepared for that if you upload
                but YouTube doesn't even make an attempt to protect your stuff.
        Other sites

Sources
    #1: Raksaksa from HBP on the different heart sounds and skips and murmurs (oh my)
        "There are essentially 4 different heart sounds, labelled s1 through to s4. S1 & s2 are normal heart sounds that everyone has, whereas s3 and s4 are additional ones.
        S1 (or the first heart sound) is caused by the ventricles contracting and is the sound of the mitral/tricuspid valves closing. S2 (or the second heart sound) is caused by the ventricles relaxing and is the sound of the aortic/pulmonic valves closing. This gives you the basic "lub-dub" sound.
        An s3 is an additional heart sound that typically indicates an increased volume of blood in the ventricle and is thought to be the sound the blood makes when it hits the bottom of a distended ventricle after the aortic and pulmonic valves close. This is normal in young people, trained athletes and during pregnancy, but can be indicative of heart problems in people over 40.
        To check if you have an s3, lie down on your left hand side with your left arm bent so your hand is behind your head and place the bell of your stethoscope over the mitral area or apex (or feel for your PMI and use that). If you hear a faint low pitch sound after your normal heart sounds (lub-dubup lub-dubup lub-dubup) then you have an s3.
        If you're unsure, an s3 sound will become more prominent after exercise whilst the heart is recovering...you don't have to get it racing really fast, but making it beat harder will make the s3 clearer"
        An s4 is an additional heart sound that is heard just before the first heart sound if you have one...which sounds like buhLub-Dub buhLub-dub. An s4 heart sound is caused by either stiffness in the left ventricle (such as that caused by scar tissue) or by an unusually thickened left ventricular wall. Hearing an s4 is a bad sign, I'm afraid!
        It is possible for your first and second heart sounds to be split, meaning that there is an audible gap between the valves in both sides of the heart closing. They never close at exactly the same time because of the size difference between the left and right chambers, but some of the time the difference is too small to be inaudible (less than .2 of a second, I think). When it is audible, it changes the heart sound from lub-dub to blub-dub (split s1), lub-blub (split s2) and even blub-blub if both are split. A narrow split is normal and nothing to worry about, but a very wide split can be indictative of a heart issue.
        How do you distinguish a split first or second heart sound from an s3 or an s4? Pay attention to the pitch...a split heart sound has a high pitch, an s3 or an s4 is a lower pitch than the first or second heart sounds.
        Murmurs are a very broad term to describe the audible noise that blood flowing across your heart valves makes. There are two types - functional murmurs (or innocent murmurs) that are heard mainly due to physiological factors outside the heart (eg in a thin person or after exercise), and pathologic murmurs that primarily indicate a problem with a heart valve.
        A high pitched clicking sound inbetween the heart sounds is also heard with some murmurs, most notably mitral valve prolapse.
        PVCs (or skips) are additional heartbeats that start in the ventricles of your heart rather than your pacemaker in your right atrium (every cardiac cell in your heart has the ability to fire like this). These extra heartbeats interfere with your normal heart rhythm and sometimes lead you to experience odd sensations in your chest...buzzing or flopping or a sudden thump are all common ones.
    #2: Yu#8782 from Discord on skips
        (In response to "Are PVCs and skips the same"?) "Not Catherine, but answering this, anyway: Yes, in most cases. What we feel as "skips" are extrasystoles / ectopic beats, which come in two flavours: PVCs (ectopic originating in the ventricles) and PACs (ectopic originating in the atria)."
        skips are harmless, you could try reducing them with magnesium
    #3: Cardiophile.blog on stress and heart disease
        https://cardiophile.blog/2017/02/21/str … t-disease/
    #4: That one topic on the forums about getting started with steths
    #5: Inside PA Training guide to steths
        http://www.mypatraining.com/stethoscope … to-use-it/

Last edited by ChiraBeats (2017-06-01 03:23:03)

vsheartbeat

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Re: Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

Actually a PAC is usually an extra full heartbeat, as the ventricles fire off automatically after the atria. Otherwise a great post!

ChiraBeats

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Re: Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

Edited post, will have to keep that in mind when talking about how the heart actually works. Probably going to be a lot of errors there

angelheart

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Re: Beginner's Guide to Cardiophilia

EKG/ECG
Electrocardiogram

PVC
Premature Ventricular Contraction

whe

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Σ _ angelheart