Final answer:
Cardiovascular disease is a significant cause of death and requires thorough assessment of functional health patterns and cardiac risk factors.
Step-by-step explanation:
Cardiovascular disease refers to various heart and blood circulation system disorders. It is a leading cause of mortality, causing about one in three deaths in the United States annually. Assessing functional health patterns and cardiac risk factors is crucial in patients with cardiovascular disease.
This includes stratifying risk based on factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise, and cholesterol levels. Among the critical elements to evaluate are factors that affect heart contractility, which can be positive (enhancing contractility) or negative (decreasing contractility).
Understanding stroke volume and cardiac output is vital for diagnosing and managing heart conditions. Similarly, it's essential to describe how the heart responds to changes in blood flow and pressure to identify potential cardiac responses in varying physiological states.
To evaluate the effects of a heart attack and other cardiac events, diagnostics like electrocardiograms, stress tests, and angiography are used. It is necessary to integrate these elements into both health history and the physical assessment to provide comprehensive care to patients with cardiovascular conditions.