II. Classifying CVS Diseases – NUS Pathweb

When looking at how to classify CVS diseases, it's best to keep it simple. There are many possible ways of classifying disease, and here are two suggestions:

1. According to Aetiology

2. According to Anatomy

1. AETIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION (click to expand)

Aetiology (VITAMIN C, D)

Vascular – eg. Coronary atherosclerosis and ischaemic heart disease
Inflammatory/infectious – eg. infective endocarditis; rheumatic heart disease; viral myocarditis
Traumatic/Mechanical or Toxic – eg. cardiac tamponade ; coarctation of the aorta
Autoimmune
Metabolic - infiltrative or storage diseases
Iatrogenic or Idiopathic – eg. drug induced cardiotoxicity
Neoplastic – eg. atrial myxoma
Congenital – eg. congenital cardiac structural abnormalities – ventricular and atrial septal defects; tetralogy of Fallot etc.
Degenerative – eg. calcific aortic stenosis

Note: Heart failure is a multifactorial disease that can be caused by a single main cause or a combination of cardiovascular conditions. It is often the common end point of many heart diseases.

2. ANATOMICAL CLASSIFICATION (click to expand)

Within each anatomical subsite, some aetiologies feature more readily / commonly. In addition to simply listing conditions in each subsite, think about the aetioloic categories these conditions fall into.

Examples of entities are included here under the main anatomical subsites. This is not a comprehensive table of entities, but an example of this means of classification. I have also included a column for Aetiology as well. Note that conduction abnormalities have not been included in this table.