Examination of the Heart
1. Sit motionless and determine if the heart action is noticeable. Normally, it cannot be felt and sensations within the chest usually described as flip flopping are regarded as palpitations. They are often caused by extrasystole or heart
block irregularity.
2. Press the right palm just below the left breast and lean forward against a solid wall, and the normal heart beat can be felt. Heart beat sensations of a sawing nature (thrill) are definitely abnormal and may represent mechanical difficulties which produce murmurs.
3. Count the pulse rate (same as heart rate) at the wrist, normally, sixty to eighty beats per minute. A resting pulse rate above 100 may represent tachycardia. An irregular beat, unlike the steady beat of marching feet, is a heart beat irregularity.
4. Press one finger firmly against the leg just above the ankle. Quickly withdraw the finger and a deep dent left in the leg which lasts for a minute, may indicate the inadequate circulation of partial heart failure.
AORTA
CORONARY (HEART) ARTERY
Fig. 52. The blood pump of the body is nearly in the center of the chest and is larger than imagined. Weighing less than a pound, it lies on its side, looking little like the typical “valentine” heart. It pumps 10 tons of blood daily and beats over a million times every 10 days. The heart works hard enough each day to lift you 1000 feet straight up in the air; it is expected nowadays to keep working for 70 years “plus.” The heart must receive enough of the blood it pumps or it “cries out” with pain. The heart or coronary arteries return to the heart from the aorta, the main blood vessel from the heart. Chest pain, shortness of breath and palpitation (feeling the heart bounce) are signals of heart trouble. Diseases of the heart annually account for half the deaths in the U.S.
5. Inhale and exhale rapidly several times and finally hold a deep breath. If the breath can easily be held for a full minute, serious heart disease is improbable.
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