Heart Attack (Coronary Infarction)

What is a Heart Attack?

A heart attack occurs when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood through a coronary artery to the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. Heart attacks were once nearly always fatal, but with better awareness and more effective heart attack treatments that is no longer so. If you think you or someone with you is having a heart attack, seek medical help immediately. Of heart attack victims who die of heart attacks, about half die within the first hour after the onset of signs and symptoms.

What causes a heart attack?

The heart requires a steady supply of blood to thrive and function, heart cells are injured, causing pain or pressure and damage in the form of scar tissue, which replaces working heart tissue. Inadequate blood supply also may cause arrhythmias that can sometimes be fatal.

A heart attack occurs when one or more of the arteries supplying blood flow through the heart are blocked. Typically this happens because of progressive cholesterol buildup in the coronary arteries (artery plaque). When this happens in arteries throughout the body, the condition is called atherosclerosis.

A heart attack is the end of a heart failure process that typically evolves over several hours. With each passing minute, more heart tissue is deprived of blood and deteriorates or dies. However, if blood flow to the heart can be restored in time, damage to the heart can be limited or prevented.

Men are generally at greater risk than are womenfor heart attacks. However, the risk for women increases sometime after menopause, usually after age 55. If your father had heart disease before 55 or your mother had heart trouble before 65, your risk of developing heart disease is greater.

Heart Attack Risk factors

Coronary risk factors include:

• Tobacco smoke. Smoking and long-term exposure to secondhand smoke damage the interior walls of arteries — including coronary arteries to your heart — allowing plaque to accumulate. Smoking also increases the risk blood clots will form.
• High blood pressure. Over time, high blood pressure can damage arteries that provide blood to your heart by accelerating atherosclerosis.
• High blood cholesterol or triglyceride levels. Cholesterol forms deposits that can narrow arteries throughout your body, including those that supply blood to your heart.
• Lack of physical activity. An inactive lifestyle contributes to high blood cholesterol levels and obesity - while people who get regular aerobic exercise have better cardiovascular fitness, decreasing their risk of heart attack. Exercise also helps lower high blood pressure.
• Obesity. Obese people have a high proportion of body fat (a body mass index of 30 or higher), raising the risk of heart disease due to high blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and diabetes.
• Diabetes. greatly increases your risk of a heart attack.
• Stress. Too much stress, as well as anger, can also raise your blood pressure.
• Alcohol. Excessive drinking can raise your blood pressure and triglyceride levels, increasing your risk of heart attack.
• Family history of heart attack. If your siblings or parents have had early heart attacks, you may be at risk, too. Your family may have a genetic condition that raises blood cholesterol levels or other lipid particles. High blood pressure also can run in families.
• Homocysteine, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. People who have higher blood levels of homocysteine, C-reactive protein and fibrinogen appear to have an increased risk of heart disease and heart attack. Some research suggests homocysteine levels can be reduced with folic acid supplements and a healthy diet, however homocysteine is more of a marker of who is at risk rather than a modifiable causitive agent. Fibrinogen and C-reactive protein levels may be reduced by modifying other risk factors for heart disease, such as quitting smoking, lowering cholesterol and exercising.

What are the symptoms of a heart attack?

Heart attack symptoms may be subtle or dramatic and vary enormously from one person to the next. Some heart attacks strike suddenly, but many people who experience a heart attack have warning signs and symptoms hours, days or weeks in advance. The earliest predictor of an attack may be recurrent chest pain (angina) that's triggered by exertion and relieved by rest. Angina is caused by temporary, insufficient blood flow to the heart, also known as "cardiac ischemia."

Common signs and symptoms of a heart attack include:

• Pressure, burning, fullness or a squeezing pain in the center of your chest that lasts for more than a few minutes
• Pain extending beyond your chest to your shoulder, arm, back, or even to your teeth and jaw
• Increasing episodes of chest pain
• Prolonged pain in the upper abdomen
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Impending sense of doom
• Fainting
• Nausea and vomiting

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack in women may be different or less noticeable than heart attack symptoms in men. In addition to the symptoms above, heart attack symptoms in women can include:

• Abdominal pain or "heartburn"
• Clammy skin
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Unusual or unexplained fatigue

How are heart attack treated?

In addition to heart medications, you may undergo one of the following interventional or surgical cardiac procedures to treat your heart attack:

• Coronary angioplasty and stenting.
• Coronary angioplasty done at the same time as a coronary catheterization (angiogram), a procedure that cardiologists do first to locate narrowed arteries to the heart. When getting an angioplasty for heart attack treatment, the sooner the better.
• Coronary artery bypass surgery.Occasionally emergency bypass surgery is necessary to treat a heart attack. Or your cardiologist may suggest that you have this procedure after your heart has had time to recover from your heart attack.

Cardiac Rehabilitation

The goal of emergency treatment of a heart attack is to restore blood flow and save heart tissue. Afterward it will be important to do all you can to promote healing and prevent another heart attack. Cardiac rehabilitation focuses on three main areas — heart medications, lifestyle changes and emotional issues.

Heart Medications

Doctors and cardiologists typically prescribe drug therapy for heart attack victims or those who are at high risk of having one.

For more information or to make an appointment please call
1-877-233-WELL (9355).