Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a broad term for diseases of the heart and blood vessels. CVD includes coronary heart diseases, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrest, rheumatic heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure) cerebrovascular disease (stroke), peripheral artery disease, and congenital heart defects, and is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States and worldwide.

Coronary heart disease involves damage or disease in the blood vessels that supply the heart. Arrhythmias are when the heart beats are too fast, too slowly, or irregularly. In congestive heart failure, the heart is unable to pump blood effectively throughout the body. Cardiac arrest is an electrical disturbance in the heart that causes the heart to suddenly stop beating, which cuts...