James Hill KS

A Heart attack is a medical emergency involving the bloods passage to the heart being block, usually by a blood clot. The lack of blood leads to serious damage to the cardiac muscle. Figure 3

Figure 1

Coronary Heart Disease CHD is the most likely cause of a Heart attack or MI. CHD involves deposits of Cholesterol (a compound vital for metabolism) known as plaque, blocking the coronary arteries as in figure 1. This thickening of the artery walls is known as Atherosclerosis. During an attack, one of the plaques ruptures, and so the blood clots (thrombosis) around the area as shown in figure 2. If the clot blocks the artery then a heart attack is triggered. Another, but rarer, cause of Myocardial Infarction is a spasm of the coronary artery causing the lumen to shrink which in event of blocking the blood flow, may lead to a heart attack. See figure 3. An even rarer cause is known as a coronary aneurysm: a result of a weakening in the coronary artery wall, which especially for sufferers of Hypertension, poses the risk of the artery wall rupturing. The following clot can block the passage and trigger an attack.

Figure 2

Syptoms: Chest pain Nausea Shortness of Breath Panic attack Coughing

Treatment:
The Five Main steps to Preventing a Heart attack:
1. Quit Smoking (it raises blood pressure and causes atherosclerosis) Lose Weight if overweight or obese Regular exercise-150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week Low-fat, High-fibre diet. Limit consumption of alchohol

Someone suffering an MI should seek immediate medical attention. Time is Muscle: the treatment seeks to salvage as much of the myocardium as possible. Aspirin is administered to prevent further clotting. To unblock the arteries, thrombolytic medicine is used to clear the passage. Alternatively a rod with a balloon-like object on the end may be threaded through a vessel, the balloon is inflated to unblock the artery.

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