A heart attack is the death of a portion of heart muscle in an area where there is a sudden loss of blood supply. Without prompt treatment, this can lead to the affected part of the heart. Heart attack is also called as Myocardial Infarct.
Causes of Heart Attack
Myocardial infarction or Heart Attack may occur at any time and often occurs without warning. As we grow older, our coronary arteries may become narrowed by the buildup of cholesterol plaque. When the arteries narrow, less blood can go through them, and less oxygen gets to the heart muscle. The process of narrowing is called atherosclerosis.
The narrower the artery becomes, the more likely it is that a blood clot may form and block the artery completely, causing a heart attack. Sometimes sudden blockages can occur even in places where the artery was not narrow before.
A heart attack may occur when the heart muscle needs more oxygen than the blood vessels can provide. This might happen, for example, during hard exercise such as shoveling snow, or with a sudden increase in blood pressure. Less commonly, a heart attack can occur due to coronary spasm. Coronary spasm is a sudden and temporary narrowing of a small part of an artery that supplies blood to the heart. It may be caused by smoking or drugs such as cocaine.
Risk factors for Heart Disease
Risk factors for heart disease include : -
Cigarette smoking
A family history of heart attack
Diabetes
Overweight
High blood pressure
High blood cholesterol
Low hdl cholesterol (that is, too little "good" cholesterol)
Stress
A lifestyle that does not include much physical activity.
Symptoms of Heart Attack
The symptoms of a heart attack include : -
Angina or chest pain
A classic heart attack symptom is crushing pain or squeezing sensation underneath the breast bone or in the left side of the chest. This pain is actually caused by lactic acid and waste product in the heart muscle, which build up when the muscle is deprived of oxygen. Pain in the chest may precede a heart attack by a period of weeks, months, or even years before an actual attack. It may even develop after the attack.
Chest pain that radiates to the arm, neck, throat, and jaw
Shortness of breath
Sweating and feeling of coldness or clamminess
Nausea and light-headedness
Feeling of indigestion and vomiting
Fearful feeling or sense of impending doom
Loss of consciousness or near-fainting
Diagnosis of Heart Attack
A heart attack is a medical emergency. If you have symptoms of a heart attack, seek immediate medical help.
Your doctor examines you and asks about your immediate symptoms and your medical history. The doctor may hear abnormal sounds in your lungs (called crackles), a heart murmur, or other abnormal sounds. You may have a rapid pulse. Blood pressure may be normal, high, or low.
He or she may use the following tests : -
Blood test are used to find out whether the heart muscle has been damaged these include : -
Troponin I and Troponin T
CPK-Creatinine phosphokinase an enzyme found mainly in heart, brain and skeletal muscle.
CPK-MB-Creatinine phosphokinase isoenzymes it maesures the different forms of creatinine phosphokinase in the blood
Serum myoglobin- Myoglobin is a protein in heart and skeletal muscles that measures the amount of myoglobin in the blood.
Coronary Angiography-is a procedure that uses a special dye (contrast material) and x-rays to see how blood flows through your heart.
A Chest X-ray can show abnormal heart size and signs of heart failure(poor pumping of the heart)
An ECG(electrocardigram) measures and records the electrical activity of your heart.It gives early information about areas of heart muscles that are damaged.
Doppler ultrasound(echocardiogram) is a type ofscan used to examine your heart valves,muscles and blood flow and to look at how efficiently your heart is pumping.
Nuclear Ventriculography-is a test that uses radioactive materials called tracers to show the heart chambers.The procedure is noninvasive.The instruments do not directly touch the heart.
CT Scan
MRI
Treatment of Heart Attack
If you suspect that you are having a heart attack : -
Call for medical help immediately.
Take nitroglycerine tablet or aspirin
if you have nitroglycerine tablet, place it under the tongue immediately and repeat every 3 minutes. You can also chew a regular aspirin to help thin the blood and prevent clotting.
If you suspect someone else is having a heart attack, call for medical help immediately. If that person stops breathing or loses consciousness, administer CPR or cardiopulmonary rescue.
Your doctor would administer the following medical treatments : -
Morphine to help with the pain
Oxygen to help breathe
Clot-dissolving drugs, such as t-PA or tissue plasminogen activator
Streptokinase derivatives to restore blood flow
After the immediate treatment for heart attack, your doctor may prescribe the following medications to reduce the risk of another attack : -
Anti-coagulants, such as aspirin, dicumarol, heparin, and warfarin, to help prevent blood clotting
Beta blockers to reduce the heart's oxygen consumption
Digitalis to improve the heart's pumping power
ACE inhibitors or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, such as captopril and enalapril to help prevent heart attack and help it recover
Surgical Treatment of Heart Attack
Depending on the severity of the heart attack and the condition of the blocked artery,
your doctor may perform the following medical procedures : -
Balloon dilation or Coronary Angioplasty
here, a catheter or tube is threaded into the heart's blood vessel and a balloon is inflated to dilate the artery at the point of atherosclerotic plaque deposit. A wire stent is sometimes then placed to keep the artery open.
Coronary bypass grafting (CABG) or a heart bypass surgery
A surgeon grafts another blood vessel from the chest or leg and "bypasses" the blocked artery.
The list of of world class heart hospitals in India is as follows : -
For more information, medical assessment and medical quote
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Email : - info@wecareindia.com
Call: +91 9029304141 (10 am. To 8 pm. IST)
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Patient Storys
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