Heart attack is a subject that fears everyone ,when they hear the word. The first step is recognising that it is a pain in the heart. Pain in the heart come from the left side of the chest . Some people feel that pain extending to the hand ,some to the jaw and some to the shoulder . It may not be for everyone ,people with sugar, in particular may not know the pain.
How to identify heart attack
Whenever there is a feeling of something different from what is normal ,we should take it into serious. Most people have only one discomfort . This means that unlike the normal, the chest may have a weight or a palpitation .
Things to do soon
- First we have to call someone for help .
- Get to the hospital with in half an hour and take the ECG.
- Treatment was based on ECG.
- One of the most serious heart attack in the ECG is the ST elevation MI . This means ,that a blood vessel is blocked. The entire area of the heart where the blocked blood vessels are destroyed without any blood supply .
- It should be opened as soon as possible.
Someone who had a heart attack due to Hematoma, that blocks the blood vessels previously a drug called streptokinase was used to break the blood clots. Between 50 to 60 %of people get a temporary blood flow. But today we have a mechanism to go straight into the blood vessel and open up those arteries. This is called primary angioplasty.
That is they went into the coronary artery through the arteries of the hand / leg, the coronary artery was wired, after replacing the Block with balloon, put on the stent and bring the blood vessels into the open position is called a primary angioplasty .
The important of the opening of the blood vessels to the heart muscle is reduces the damage to heart muscle .Once damage to heart muscle comes, if only we had escaped from the heart attack . If you walk you may get tired and have a hard time doing normal activities . We can reduce this heart muscle damage by opening the blood vessels.
The non ST elevation MI is next type of heart attack . There are only minor changes in the ECG ,it would be heart attack though. On this situation, two or three ECGs may need to be taken intermittently.
Heart will release some cardiac enzymes (troponin), once damage comes to the heart muscle . It can make us understand even the smallest heart attack. That is troponin test. A TMT should be done within 48 hours,even if the troponin test is negative .
You have to walk through the TMT stress and see if there are any changes. If the TMT has ECG changes, then an angiogram can be done to see if there is a block. If there is a block it can be removed . This is the treatment .
- to prevent the heart attack and risk factors
- To maintain exercise ,lifestyle
- Avoid smoking .
- Control the sugar,BP
- Take the BP drugs should be prescribed.
- we should never stop the drugs at our will.
- Take life long as per doctor’s lorder.
- Follow up