Sunday 6 January 2013

Symptoms Of Heart Attack

HEART ATTACK
 
The heart muscle requires a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood to nourish it. The coronary arteries provide the heart with this critical blood supply. In case you have coronary artery disease, those arteries become narrow & blood cannot flow as well as they ought to. Fatty matter, calcium, proteins, & inflammatory cells build up within the arteries to form plaques of different sizes. The plaque deposits are hard on the outside & soft & mushy on the inside.

When the plaque is hard, the outer shell cracks (plaque rupture), platelets (disc-shaped particles in the blood that aid clotting) come to the area, & blood clots form around the plaque. If a blood clot blocks the artery, the heart muscle becomes "starved" for oxygen. Within a short time, death of heart muscle cells occurs, causing permanent destroy. This is a heart assault.

While it is unusual, a heart assault may even be caused by a spasm of a coronary artery. In the work of a coronary spasm, the coronary arteries restrict or spasm on & off, reducing blood supply to the heart muscle (ischemia). It may occur at rest, & may even occur in people without significant coronary artery disease.

Each coronary artery supplies blood to a region of heart muscle. The amount of destroy to the heart muscle depends on the size of the area supplied by the blocked artery & the time between injury & treatment.

Healing of the heart muscle begins soon after a heart assault & takes about eight weeks. like a skin wound, the heart's wound heals as well as a scar will form in the damaged area. But, the new scar tissue does not contract. So, the heart's pumping ability is diminished after a heart assault. The amount of lost pumping ability depends on the size & location of the scar.

SYMPTOMS OF HEART ATTACKS.

Symptoms of a heart assault include:

  •   Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, or pain in the chest, arm, or below the breastbone
  •   Discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat, or arm
  •   Fullness, indigestion, or choking feeling (may feel like heartburn)
  •   Sweating, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness
  •   Extreme weakness, anxiety, or shortness of breath
  •   Speedy or irregular heartbeats
 During a heart assault, signs last 30 minutes or longer and are not relieved by rest or nitroglycerin under the tongue.

Some people have a heart assault without having any signs (a "silent" myocardial infarction). A silent MI can occur in someone, but it is more common among people with diabetes.