Slide 2:
Heart Attack Symptoms and Warning Signs
A blockage in the heart's arteries may reduce or completely cut off the blood supply to a portion of the heart. This can cause a blood clot to form and totally stop blood flow in a coronary artery, resulting in a heart attack (also called an acute myocardial infarction or MI).
Irreversible injury to the heart muscle usually occurs if medical help is not received promptly. Unfortunately, it is common for people to dismiss heart attack symptoms.
What are the warning signs of a heart attack?
The American Heart Association and other medical experts say the body likely will send one or more of these warning signals of a heart attack:
Uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes.
Pain spreading to the shoulders, neck or arms. The pain may be mild to intense. It may feel like pressure, tightness, burning, or heavy weight. It may be located in the chest, upper abdomen, neck, jaw, or inside the arms or shoulders.
Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath.
Anxiety, nervousness and/or cold, sweaty skin.
Paleness or pallor.
Increased or irregular heart rate.
Feeling of impending doom.
Slide 3:
Treatment
If you had a heart attack, you will need to stay in the hospital, possibly in the intensive care unit (ICU). You will be hooked up to an ECG machine, so the health care team can look at how your heart is beating.
Life-threatening irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias) are the leading cause of death in the first few hours of a heart attack. These arrhythmias may be treated with medications or electrical cardioverson/defibrillation.
The health care team will give you oxygen, even if your blood oxygen levels are normal. This is done so that your body tissues have easy access to oxygen and your heart doesn't have to work as hard.
An intravenous line (IV) will be placed into one of your veins. Medicines and fluids pass through this IV. You may need a tube inserted into your bladder (urinary catheter) so that doctors can see how much fluid your body removes.
ANGIOPLASTY AND STENT PLACEMENT
Angioplasty, also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), is the preferred emergency procedure for opening the arteries for some types of heart attacks. It should preferably be performed within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital and no later than 12 hours after a heart attack.
Angioplasty is a procedure to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart.
A coronary artery stent is a small, metal mesh tube that opens up (expands) inside a coronary artery. A stent is often placed after angioplasty. It helps prevent the artery from closing up again. A drug eluting stent has medicine in it that helps prevent the artery from closing.
THROMBOLYTIC THERAPY (CLOT-BUSTING DRUGS)
Depending on the results of the ECG, certain patients may be given drugs to break up the clot. It is best if these drugs are given within 3 hours of when the patient first felt the chest pain. This is called thrombolytic therapy. The medicine is first given through an IV. Blood thinners taken by mouth may be prescribed later to prevent clots from forming.
Thrombolytic therapy is not appropriate for people who have:
Bleeding inside their head (intracranial haemorrhage)
Brain abnormalities such as tumours or blood vessel malformations
Stroke within the past 3 months (or possibly longer)
Head injury within the past 3 months
Thrombolytic therapy is extremely dangerous in women who are pregnant or in people who have:
A history of using blood thinners such as Coumadin
Had major surgery or a major injury within the past 3 weeks
Had internal bleeding within the past 2-4 weeks
Peptic ulcer disease
Severe high blood pressure