HEART ATTACK
A heart attack, also called a myocardial infarction, happens when a part of the heart muscle doesn’t get enough blood. The more time that passes without treatment to restore blood flow, the greater the damage to the heart muscle.
Causes
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the main cause of heart attack. CAD is a condition in which the major blood vessels that supply the heart get clogged with deposits of cholesterol, known as plaques. Before a heart attack, 1 of the plaques bursts (ruptures), causing a blood clot to develop at the site of the rupture. The clot may block the supply of blood to the heart, triggering a heart attack.
Severe spasm, or sudden contraction, of a coronary artery that can stop blood flow to the heart muscle.
Symptoms
▪️ Chest discomfort
Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes – or it may go away and then return. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.
▪️ Discomfort in other areas of the upper body
Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
▪️ Shortness of breath
This can occur with or without chest discomfort.
▪️ Other signs
Other possible signs include, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea
Lightheadedness.
Angina is chest pain that happens because there isn't enough blood going to part of your heart. It can feel like a heart attack, with pressure or squeezing in your chest. It’s sometimes called angina pectoris or ischemic chest pain.
A heart attack generally causes chest pain for more than 15 minutes, but it can also have no symptoms at all. Many people who experience a heart attack have warning signs hours, days, or weeks in advance.
Risk factors
🔸 High blood pressure
🔸 High blood cholesterol
🔸 Smoking
🔸 Your lifestyle
🔸 Your age
🔸 Family history
Preventive tips
Your lifestyle affects your heart health. The following steps can help you not only prevent but also recover from a heart attack:
Avoid smoke
The most important thing you can do to improve your heart's health is to not smoke. Also, avoid being around secondhand smoke.
Control your blood pressure and cholesterol levels
If one or both of these is high, your doctor can prescribe changes to your diet and medications. Ask your doctor how often you need to have your blood pressure and cholesterol levels monitored.
Get regular medical checkups
Some of the major risk factors for heart attack — high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes — cause no symptoms early on. Your doctor can perform tests to check for these conditions and help you manage them, if necessary.
Exercise regularly
Regular exercise helps improve heart muscle function after a heart attack and helps prevent a heart attack by helping you to control your weight, diabetes, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Exercise needn't be vigorous. Walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week can improve your health.You can get advices from your physiotherapist regarding this.
Maintain a healthy weight
Excess weight strains your heart and can contribute to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Eat a heart-healthy diet
Saturated fat, trans fats, and cholesterol in your diet can narrow arteries to your heart, and too much salt can raise blood pressure. Eat a heart-healthy diet that includes lean proteins, such as fish and beans, plenty of fruits and vegetables, and whole grains.
Manage diabetes
High blood sugar is damaging to your heart.
Regular exercise, eating well and losing weight all help to keep blood sugar levels at more desirable levels. Many people also need medication to manage their diabetes.
Control stress
Reduce stress in 5your day-to-day activities. Rethink workaholic habits and find healthy ways to minimize or deal with stressful events in your life.
SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST
Sudden cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function, breathing, and consciousness. The condition usually results from a problem with your heart's electrical system, which disrupts your heart's pumping action and stops blood flow to your body.
Sudden cardiac arrest isn't the same as a heart attack when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked. However, a heart attack can sometimes trigger an electrical disturbance that leads to sudden cardiac arrest.
Symptoms
Signs of sudden cardiac arrest are immediate and drastic and include:
▪️ Sudden collapse
▪️ No pulse
▪️ No breathing
▪️ Loss of consciousness
Sometimes other signs and symptoms occur before sudden cardiac arrest. These might include:
▪️ Chest discomfort
▪️ Shortness of breath
▪️ Weakness
▪️ Fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart (palpitations)
But sudden cardiac arrest often occurs with no warning.
Causes
The usual cause of sudden cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia), which happens when your heart's electrical system isn't working correctly. The heart's electrical system controls the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat. If something goes wrong, your heart can beat too fast, too slowly, or irregularly (arrhythmia).
Often these arrhythmias are brief and harmless, but some types can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
The most common heart rhythm at the time of cardiac arrest is an arrhythmia in the lower chamber of your heart (ventricle). Rapid, erratic electrical impulses cause your ventricles to quiver uselessly instead of pumping blood (ventricle fibrillation).
Heart conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest
Sudden cardiac arrest can happen in people who have no known heart disease. However, a life-threatening arrhythmia usually develops in a person with a preexisting, possibly undiagnosed heart condition. Conditions include:
Coronary artery disease
Most cases of sudden cardiac arrest occur in people who have coronary artery disease, in which the arteries become clogged with cholesterol and other deposits, reducing blood flow to the heart.
Heart attack
If a heart attack occurs, often as a result of severe coronary artery disease, it can trigger ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac arrest. Also, a heart attack can leave scar tissue in your heart. Electrical short circuits around the scar tissue can lead to abnormalities in your heart rhythm.
Enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy)
This occurs primarily when your heart's muscular walls stretch and enlarge or thicken. Then your heart's muscle is abnormal, a condition that often leads to arrhythmias.
Valvular heart disease
Leaking or narrowing of your heart valves can lead to stretching or thickening of your heart muscle. When the chambers become enlarged or weakened because of stress caused by a tight or leaking valve, there's an increased risk of developing arrhythmia.
Heart defect present at birth (congenital heart disease)
When sudden cardiac arrest occurs in children or adolescents, it can be due to congenital heart disease. Adults who've had corrective surgery for a congenital heart defect still have a higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
Electrical problems in the heart
In some people, the problem is in the heart's electrical system itself instead of a problem with the heart muscle or valves. These are called primary heart rhythm abnormalities and include conditions such as Brugada syndrome and long QT syndrome.
Risk factors
Because a sudden cardiac arrest is so often linked with coronary artery disease, the same factors that put you at risk of coronary artery disease can also put you at risk of sudden cardiac arrest. These include:
A family history of coronary artery disease
Smoking
High blood pressure
High blood cholesterol
Obesity
Diabetes
An inactive lifestyle
Other factors that might increase your risk of sudden cardiac arrest include:
A previous episode of cardiac arrest or a family history of cardiac arrest
A previous heart attack
A personal or family history of other forms of heart disease, such as heart rhythm disorders, congenital heart defects, heart failure, and cardiomyopathy
Growing older — the risk of sudden cardiac arrest increases with age
Being male
Using illegal drugs, such as cocaine or amphetamines
Nutritional imbalance, such as low potassium or magnesium levels
Obstructive sleep apnea
Chronic kidney disease
Complications
When sudden cardiac arrest occurs, reduced blood flow to your brain causes unconsciousness. If your heart rhythm doesn't rapidly return to normal, brain damage occurs, and death results. Survivors of cardiac arrest might show signs of brain damage
Prevention
Reduce your risk of sudden cardiac arrest by getting regular checkups, being screened for heart disease, and living a heart-healthy lifestyle.
References:-
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/about-heart-attacks/heart-attack-or-sudden-cardiac-arrest-how-are-they-different
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/heart-attack-and-cardiac-arrest
https://www.heartfoundation.org.nz/your-heart/heart-conditions/cardiac-arrest
Prasadini Dikwella
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