Heart Attack
How Up-To-Date is Your Doc?Medical Author: Benjamin C. Wedro, MD, FAAEM
But the rules change for the world outside sports as well, and never more frequently or dramatically than in medicine. Every aspect of medicine from diagnosis to treatment, medications to technology, is exposed to newer and potentially better ways of doing things. Heart attack is a good example of what was - and what is. Twenty-five years ago the treatment for a myocardial infarction or heart attack was hospitalization for two or three weeks followed by a gentle exercise program that limited walking to a few feet per day. Now patients who had bypass surgery are up and walking out of the hospital in four or five days. Top Searched Heart Attack Terms
heart attack symptoms, heart attacks in women, heart attack risk factors, heart attack causes, heart attack prevention, heart attack treatment, warning signs
Heart Attack OverviewIf you believe that you are having the symptoms of a heart attack, please call 911 immediately. The heart is a muscle like any other in the body. It needs blood flow to supply oxygen to allow it to do work. When there isn't enough oxygen, the muscle starts to suffer, and when there is no oxygen, the muscle starts to die. Heart muscle gets its blood supply from arteries that start in the aorta and run on the surface of the heart, known as the coronary arteries. The right coronary artery supplies the right ventricle of the heart and the inferior (lower) portion of the left ventricle. The left anterior descending coronary artery supplies the majority of the left ventricle, while the circumflex artery supplies the back of the left ventricle. Heart Attack CausesOver time, cholesterol buildup can occur in these blood vessels in the form of plaque. This narrows the artery and can restrict the amount of blood that can flow through it. If the artery becomes too narrow, it cannot supply enough blood to the heart muscle when it becomes stressed. Just like arm muscles that begin to hurt if you lift too much, or legs that ache when you run too fast; the heart muscle will ache if it doesn't get adequate blood supply. This ache is called angina. If the plaque ruptures, a small blood clot can form within the blood vessel and acutely block the blood flow. When that part of the heart loses its blood supply completely, the muscle dies. This is called a heart attack, or an MI - a myocardial infarction (myo=muscle +cardial=heart; infarction=death due to lack of oxygen).
Next: Heart Attack Risk Factors » Viewer Comments & ReviewsHeart attack - Symptoms at Onset of DiseaseThe eMedicineHealth physician editors ask:
The symptoms of heart attack can vary greatly from patient to patient. What were your symptoms at the onset of your disease? |
Every year the rules change. The one constant about sports is that during the
off season and sometimes during the year, the commissioner, the president, or
the owners will sit down and tinker with the way the game is played. Doesn't
matter which sport, it happens to all of them. The referees and players get
updates and adapt their play to the new rules. Ever diligent, the fan follows
along, learns, and adapts to the changes. How else can the referee or umpire be
second-guessed, except by those who really care about the game? 
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Heart Attack
Atrial Fibrillation Overview
Atrial fibrillation describes an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm. The irregular rhythm, or arrhythmia, results from abnormal electrical impulses in the heart. The irregularity can be continuous, or it can come and go.
Normal heart contractions begin as an electrical impulse in the right atrium. This impulse comes from an area of the atrium called the sinoatrial (SA) or sinus node, the "natural pacemaker."
- As the impulse travels through the atrium, it
produces a wave of muscle contractions. This causes the atria to contract.
- The impulse reaches the atrioventricular (AV) node in
the muscle wall between the 2 ventricles. There, it pauses, giving blood from
the atria time to enter the ventricles.
- The impulse then continues into the ventricles, causing ventricular contraction that pushes the blood out of the heart, completing a single heartb...
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Myocardial Infarction »
Myocardial infarction (MI) is the irreversible necrosis of heart muscle secondary to prolonged ischemia.
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