Heart Attacks Information

A lot is written about the so called common signs of Heart Attacks and what they are supposed to typically consist of but what is fact and what is fiction? Here we take a look at the basic issues surrounding Heart Attacks or Myocardial infarctions.

A Myocardial infarction (MI or AMI for acute myocardial infarction) is more commonly known as a heart attack.These occur when the blood supply to part of the heart is interrupted causing some heart cells to die. One of the most common causes of this is when the coronary artery is blocked through the rupture of atherosclerotic plaque.An unstable collection of white blood cells (especially macrophages and lipids (like cholesterol) collectively known as Athersclerotic plaque separate from the wall of an artery.The end result of all of this (called ischemia) which is a restriction in blood supply) has been known to cause damage or death of the heart muscle tissue known as Myocardium.

Though symptoms of a Heart Attack do differ there are certain classic symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, pain in the arm, back and neck, and a growing sense of anxiety (also known as impending doom). Fewer classic symptoms are often experienced by women with shortness of breath, indigestion and fatigue being most common.{Approximately one quarter of all myocardial infarctions are silent, without chest pain or other symptoms.|It does have to be remembered though that 25 percent of all Myocardial Infarctions occur in silence and without classic symptoms such as chest pain.Prompt treatment for a Myocardial infarction is essential if the patients chances of survival are to be maximised. To be quite honest in situations like these, minutes and seconds do matter.

Heart attacks are the leading cause of death for both men and women all over the world.As you can imagine there are a number of important risk factors to be taken into consideration here such as potential previous history of cardiovascular disease, the age of the patient and the consumption of alcohol, unsuitable food and tobacco.

As is also imagined there are considerably more factors that are actually taken into consideration such as additional medical conditions of which potential or actual diabetes is one, obesity, high blood pressure or hypertension and/or incidence of kidney disease

Immediate treatment for suspected acute myocardial infarction includes oxygen, aspirin, and sublingual glyceryl trinitrate (colloquially referred to as nitroglycerin and abbreviated as NTG or GTN).Pain relief is also often given, classically morphine sulfate.