Cardiovascular Disease in Minorities

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Introduction

Cardiovascular disease is a dangerous ailment, as it concerns the key part of human organism, and is known to be fatal. The patient in the case study visited a dentist to treat her toothache, but she turned out to have far more serious symptoms as well, which may have been caused by a cardiovascular disease. The disease in question is left ventricular dysfunction, which is caused by social determinants of health, as she is a minority.

The cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary pathophysiologic processes that result in the patient presenting these symptoms

The most obvious of the patient’s symptoms are hypertension and edema. Hypertension may have caused a heart attack, as witnessed by the elevated troponin level. It is known that hypertension is one of the most common causes of left ventricular dysfunction (Norris, 2019). Consequently, one or both of her heart’s lower chambers have stopped pumping blood effectively. This resulted in blood accumulating in a part of her body, causing edema. Edema, an “acute reduction in cardiac output (left ventricular dysfunction)” is connected to an increase in systemic vascular resistance, which leads to pressure on the pulmonary vasculature, as well as capillary pressure (Cameron et al., p. 205). Once formed, the edema leads to decreasing oxygenation and increasing pulmonary vascular resistance, worsening left ventricular dysfunction as well as leading to pulmonary edema. The maldistribution of fluids that the patient demonstrates is one of the symptoms for left ventricular dysfunction as well. Thus, the patient’s possible and most likely diagnosis is left ventricular dysfunction.

Any racial/ethnic variables that may impact physiological functioning

Race and ethnicity are mostly not biological variables in current medical studies dedicated to the issue. Instead, they are identified as “social, cultural, and demographic constructs”, which can be examined to better understand minorities’ access to healthcare (Mensah & Fuster, 2021, p. 2457). The factors influencing minorities’ access to treatment are called social determinants of health. Minorities have to face structural barriers to their access healthcare, while significant psychosocial stress contributes to high disease rates, especially cardiovascular disease (Muncan, 2018). Smoking and alcohol consumption are present among minorities more than in whites as well (Muncan, 2018). Thus, minorities lack access to healthcare, while their psychological problems and unhealthy environment stimulate ailments, including cardiovascular disease. Dealing with their social determinants of health is the priority for improving their situation.

However, a purely biological aspect of racial disparity should not be ignored. According to the results of a recent study by Hackler et al. (2019), Blacks have an adverse adipokine profile and a higher probability of having subclinical cardiomyocyte injury. These biomarkers lead to excessive cardiovascular disease among Blacks (Hackler et al., 2019). However, other studies prove that social factors may lead minorities to circumstances that influence their health conditions. Further research is necessary before a final conclusion on the matter can be made.

How these processes interact to affect the patient

As attempting to prevent cardiovascular problems and possible heart attacks is one of the most important methods of treating them, the patient has missed this opportunity. This may have been caused by her limited access to healthcare. The reason why she finally addressed healthcare is a toothache pain. It is therefore possible to assume that she hesitated to get treatment for the less obvious, but more life-threatening symptoms such as her high blood pressure. It is possible that, if she had better access to healthcare in accordance with her social determinants of health, her current condition would be prevented. Thus, the example of this patient proves that the limitations of social determinants of health minorities have to face directly lead to adverse health conditions, including heart attacks.

Conclusion

Thus, the patient most likely experiences left ventricular dysfunction, as she demonstrates edema and high blood pressure. Minorities face a higher risk of having a cardiovascular disease caused by having the less beneficial social determinants of health. As the patient had not gotten treatment until the situation became critical, it is likely that her decision was dictated by the social determinants of health. Thus, the current case is a situation where social determinants have led the patient to a cardiovascular disease.

References

Cameron, P., Little, M., Deasy, C., & Mitra, B. (2019). Textbook of adult emergency medicine. Elsevier Gezondheidszorg.

Hackler, E., Lew, J., Gore, M. O., Ayers, C. R., Atzler, D., Khera, A., Rohatgi, A., Lewis, A., Neeland, I., Omland, T., & de Lemos, J. A. (2019). Racial differences in cardiovascular biomarkers in the general population.Journal of the American Heart Association, 8(18). Web.

Mensah, G. A., & Fuster, V. (2021). Race, ethnicity, and cardiovascular disease.Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 78(24), 2457–2459. Web.

Muncan, B. (2018). Cardiovascular disease in racial/ethnic minority populations: illness burden and overview of community-based interventions.Public Health Reviews, 39(1). Web.

Norris, T. L. (2019). Porth’s essentials of pathophysiology (5th ed.). LWW.

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Cardiovascular Disease in Minorities

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