Heart attack at a glance

[Naveed Yaseen]

A heart attack results when a blood clot completely obstructs a coronary artery supplying blood to the heart muscle and heart muscle dies.

Today’s Health Tips

* The blood clot that causes the heart attack usually forms at the site of rupture of an atherosclerotic, cholesterol plaque on the inner wall of a coronary artery.

* The most common symptom of heart attack is chest pain.

* The most common complications of a heart attack are heart failure, and ventricular fibrillation.

* The risk factors for atherosclerosis and heart attack include elevated cholesterol levels, increased blood pressure, tobacco use, diabetes, male gender and a family history of heart attacks at an early age.

* Heart attacks are diagnosed with electrocardiograms and measurement of cardiac enzymes in blood

* Early reopening of blocked coronary arteries reduces the amount of damage to the heart and improves the prognosis for a heart attack.

* Medical treatment for heart attacks may include anti-platelet, anti-coagulant, and clot dissolving drugs as well as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, beta blockers and oxygen.

* Interventional treatment for heart attacks may include coronary angiography with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), coronary artery stents, and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

* Patients suffering a heart attack are hospitalised for several days to detect heart rhythm disturbances, shortness of breath, and chest pain.

* Further heart attacks can be prevented by aspirin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, discontinuing smoking, weight reduction, exercise, good control of blood pressure and diabetes, following a low cholesterol and low saturated fat diet that is high in omega-3-fatty acids, taking multivitamins with an increased amount of folic acid, decreasing LDL cholesterol, and increasing HDL cholesterol.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=183425