One of the terrible diseases that has been encountered recently with an alarming frequency is myocardial infarction. In this situation, the heart suffers from areas - a certain percentage of muscle fibers die. The situation is provoked by insufficient blood flow in the affected element. Medical statistics have repeatedly investigated this issue, and collected analytics show that heart attack is most dangerous for people 40-60 years of age. The risk is higher for men, but among the female half of humanity, the frequency of this problem is less than 1.5 times, or even half.
What is this about?
Typically, causes of myocardial infarction in ischemia, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis. The probability of such an outcome is higher if a person smokes, is overweight, leads an inactive lifestyle. Particular attention should be paid to the abuse of tobacco products - the smoking process is associated with the narrowing of the heart coronary vessels, therefore, the muscle fibers of the body do not receive the necessary volumes of blood, and at the same time, oxygen, nutrients. Despite identifying people at risk as predominantly middle-aged and elderly, smoking addiction makes the risk of heart attack higher among young people. Sometimes a heart attack is the primary manifestation that allows you to diagnose ischemia.
As can be seen from medical statistics, to this day, many inhabitants do not know what it is - myocardial infarction. The consequences that he can provoke are also not too well known among the masses, so people do not take measures to prevent such a disease. But the statistics are inexorable: among elderly patients, heart attack is one of the most common causes of disability. Of every hundred patients, a fatal outcome is recorded in 10-12 cases.
Where did the trouble come from?
In order for the heart to function normally, it is necessary to ensure the supply of oxygen and components (mineral, vitamin), which the fibers need for active life. The supply of all necessary is realized through the branched circulatory system of the coronary vessels. If one of them becomes clogged, a heart attack is diagnosed.
As can be seen from statistics, blood clots are one of the most common causes of coronary obstruction, and such a formation is formed from a plaque caused by atherosclerosis. Oxygen reserves accumulated in the cells are sufficient to maintain viability within a ten-second time period. About half an hour, the muscle is viable, even if the artery is blocked by a blood clot.
The next stage of a disease such as myocardial infarction is irreversible changes in muscle tissue. From the start of the occlusal process, 3-6 hours pass until the complete death of all cells of the damaged area. By checking the patient's condition in a hospital setting, it can be determined whether a small focal lesion has occurred or if the area is large. Sometimes they diagnose a transmural form, which is characterized by myocardial damage throughout the thickness.
Clinic and Diagnostics
It is quite difficult to formulate exactly all the features of the clinic of myocardial infarction, since the picture from patient to patient differs quite strongly. One of the serious difficulties is directly connected with this - timely formulation of the diagnosis.
Typically, the patient is checked on an installation that reads an electrocardiogram, the nature of pain is clarified, and blood is taken for biochemistry - in case of a heart attack, the analysis shows quite characteristic changes, from which it can be concluded that the heart cells are damaged. If the situation is doubtful, additional measures should be taken to assess the patient's condition. Most often, radioisotope methods of detecting a lesion affected by necrotic processes come to the rescue.
Typical symptoms
Myocardial infarction can be suggested if prolonged pain bothers near the heart, behind the sternum. Sensations are described as oppressive, constricting, intense, radiating in the shoulder blades, back, neck, arm. If you take "Nitroglycerin", the pain does not go away.
The patient sweats profusely, the skin turns pale, the condition is close to fainting. However, the described symptomatology is a classic picture, but in practice it is far from always the manifestations of just such.
In some cases, the ailment manifests itself with weak unpleasant sensations in the region of the heart, as if interruptions in the functioning of the muscle. There are also known cases when a person did not feel pain at all. There is a chance of atypical myocardial infarction. If the disease develops according to this scenario, palpable breathing problems are observed, the stomach hurts greatly, and excruciating shortness of breath develops. Diagnosing the situation correctly is quite difficult.
Consequences: what to fear?
The disease is dangerous not only in itself, and the complications of myocardial infarction are terrible, especially severe, developing if measures are not taken in time to restore heart function.
The situation can provoke a failure of the functioning of the heart muscle in an acute form, cause a cardiac rupture, impaired rhythm of the heartbeat, cause cardiogenic shock or other conditions that are life-threatening for the patient. Any complications triggered by a heart attack require urgent, highly qualified assistance.
What to do?
Having noticed the symptoms of myocardial infarction described above at home or with a friend, you must urgently consult a doctor, if possible - call emergency care, by phone describing all the features of the patient's condition. Waiting for a doctor, you need to provide primary care to a person. The patient is placed or seated so that it is convenient for him, give a Nitroglycerin tablet or up to 40 drops of Corvalol for resorption.
The doctor, upon detecting the symptoms of myocardial infarction, as a rule, takes measures for the speedy transportation of the patient to hospital conditions.
A heart attack is treated strictly in the intensive care unit. In this case, analgesics are used, drugs that are effective as dissolving blood clots, as well as drugs to lower blood pressure.
The task of doctors is to reduce the amount of blood circulating in the heart as efficiently as possible in order to stabilize the patient's condition, as well as to normalize the heart rate. The effectiveness of any medication and other measures directly depends on the speed of patient admission to intensive care. The more time has passed since the onset of a heart attack, the worse the prognosis. Sometimes the question of life and death is not even hours, but minutes.
Responsibility and Consistency
After myocardial infarction, it is necessary to undergo a rehabilitation course. The correctness of this gap, the correct actions of doctors and patient compliance with recommendations increase his chance of effective recovery. Specialists select therapeutic treatment based on the patient’s condition, general indications and individual characteristics of the case.
Rehabilitation sometimes lasts up to six months, and a number of medications will have to be used daily for life. The correct execution of medical instructions, the observance of a healthy lifestyle, the complete cessation of smoking, combined with a reasonable diet, allow you to provide yourself with many years of high-quality life.
The best treatment is prevention
In order not to encounter a myocardial wall infarction, the most effective measures should be taken. Currently, annual medical research is organized at the federal level. A visit to the doctor to clarify the characteristics of the condition, the level of heart health, the identification of chronic pathologies, their treatment with appropriate drugs - all this helps minimize the likelihood of a terrible heart disease.
If ischemia, hypertension or atherosclerosis is diagnosed, you do not need to wait until the thunder breaks out, you should immediately abandon bad habits and switch to proper nutrition, change your lifestyle and regularly use the medicines recommended by your doctor, both pharmaceutical, industrial, and herbal, if the doctor recommends such.
Ischemia and heart attack
Ischemia is one of the most dangerous diagnoses associated with the functioning of the heart muscle. Recently, it is being put to a growing percentage of the population. A similar history of the disease is the reason for a thorough diagnosis of coronary arteries. To do this, use a special approach - angiography.
X-ray images make it possible to evaluate exactly where the plaques provoked by atherosclerosis are located, which parts of the heart muscle are most vulnerable, and also to assess the quality of the coronary arteries. If a detailed study showed the presence of narrowing, you can apply special technologies to expand the ducts from the inside:
- If the doctor decides that a particular patient needs such a procedure, he is referred for angioplasty.
- Another good option for the prevention of heart attack is the implantation of a stent, that is, a skeleton made of metal that constantly keeps the vessel open.
- Sometimes there are indications for shunting. This is a rather complicated operation requiring the participation of a highly qualified doctor. It consists in the formation of new vessels connecting the arteries, the aorta. Such a duct will serve as an additional path for the blood, which the heart muscle needs.
Stages of the disease
It is customary to distinguish four stages of myocardial infarction, and each of them is characterized by individual characteristics, signs. Allocate:
- acute period;
- acute;
- subacute;
- scarring.
As can be seen from medical statistics, almost half of all cases for the patient are completely unpredictable. Many attribute this to the lack of attention to their condition, which is characteristic of many of our compatriots. However, up to 60% of survivors of myocardial infarction noted that they had been preoccupied with angina for quite some time.
First Danger Calls
Signs of myocardial infarction can be suspected for pains that bother the heart. Unpleasant sensations, signaling the possibility of a development of the situation, can be felt in the ear and even the abdomen, jaw, shoulder and forearm. Some pains at first are quite weak, lethargic, others immediately sharp, cutting. Most often, feelings are disturbed after intense exertion, exercise, stress, accompanied by strong emotions. In 90% of cases, the root cause is atherosclerosis, which requires any modern person to be especially careful about their health in general and the protection of the circulatory system from cholesterol, in particular.
Typically, seizures indicating an increased risk of myocardial infarction begin several weeks before the situation develops according to a difficult scenario, although sometimes signals can be disturbing for years. One thing unites them - no matter how long this interval lasts, without adequate qualified medical care, sooner or later it will necessarily end in an attack accompanied by tissue death.
Doctors call upon the first suspicion of the possibility of a heart attack to consult a specialist, to take measures to prevent deterioration.
Next phase
If you ignore the primary symptoms, the likelihood of acute myocardial infarction is high. Everyone and everyone needs to know its manifestations in order to identify it in time if an acute period begins. It has already been indicated above which manifestations of this stage are basic. As an additional symptomatology, sudden toothache, a mild condition, and chills can appear. A head may spin, all this is accompanied by a frequent pulse.
The strength of pain and their localization is determined by what particular element of the heart muscle was hit. The pain is stronger the larger the area covered by the process. There are also known situations when, during the acute phase, the heart stopped, and this was the only symptom of the condition.
The described heart attack period is the most dangerous. A certain percentage of muscle fibers die off, the heart is forced to cope with the load without previous resources, and this can cause a complete stop. Suspecting symptoms, taking medications for angina pectoris and making sure that there is no pronounced effect from them, you should immediately call an ambulance.
Disease develops
After the acute, acute myocardial infarction occurs. Symptoms are similar to the previous stage, but somewhat smoother, the pain sensations become weaker. Necrotic processes in the heart muscle fibers provoke fever. The temperature lasts a week, sometimes longer, and the strength of the heat depends on the localization of the area of death.
The next stage is subacute. This form of myocardial infarction is accompanied by a normalization of the rhythm of the heartbeat, the temperature gradually normalizes. A couple of weeks after a heart attack, scars begin to form on the affected area of the heart muscle. After that, the recovery period starts. At the same time, there are no symptoms as such, but angina continues to bother with regular attacks. If adequate treatment is not started, the likelihood of a recurrence of the attack is high.
To prevent this, a fight against atherosclerosis, ischemia should be started. Vascular lesions are dangerous not only for the heart, but also for the brain, since a detached plaque can clog the blood vessels that feed brain tissue.
Special case: female patients
In such a situation, the diagnosis of myocardial infarction, the course of the disease and its treatment have a number of specific features. It was mentioned above that cases of the disease are more characteristic of the male sex, so the pathology in women is still poorly studied.
In many respects, protection against ischemia is ensured by the presence in the body of a sufficient amount of estrogen produced over almost a lifetime. Thanks to this compound, the risk of atherosclerosis is somewhat reduced, plaques do not grow so quickly. The hormonal compounds in the body become less during menopause, therefore, an increased risk is associated with this age.
A heart attack can be suspected by swelling of the extremities - such a symptom usually appears later in the evening. The approach of a dangerous situation is signaled by fatigue, shortness of breath even after prolonged rest. Some complain of a malfunction in the digestive system. A heart attack itself may not even be accompanied by severe chest pains, but it often feels sick, rises in temperature and pressure. Possible toothache.
There is a likelihood of a complete absence of symptoms. Doctors pay attention that this variant of the course of the disease is significantly more dangerous than the obvious form, since many simply do not attach importance to the incident. It is among women that the percentage of patients who learn about a heart attack has happened quite by accident as part of a diagnostic examination.
Male case: features
In a strong half of humanity, treatment of myocardial infarction has its own characteristics associated with the course of pathology. The disease can be suspected by profuse sweating, severe pain and frequent pulse, weakness, high pressure. It was previously believed that the risk of such a pathology is characteristic only for people of forty years of age and older, but recently the situation has changed: increasingly, the problem is diagnosed in young men. This is explained by low mobility in everyday life, malnutrition, saturated with harmful fats. More and more people are overweight and have diabetes. As can be seen from medical statistics, at a young age, a heart attack often occurs without symptoms.
Atypical case
Often, and in old age, the disease proceeds atypically. To a greater extent, this is characteristic of people who have previously had a heart attack (or even more than once). Atypical forms have several types:
- abdominal;
- asthmatic
- cerebral.
The first is manifested by gastric indigestion, hiccups and vomiting, the second - by suffocation, coughing. Cerebral infarction is expressed by dizziness, a person is close to fainting. An atypical form is possible with a pronounced pain syndrome, and teeth, neck, ear, leg, arm on the left respond with such sensations.
The acute form of pathology often does not have symptoms, it is detected only after the passage of time, by chance, as a rule, when removing the ECG. The absence of pain during and after myocardial infarction is characteristic, as already mentioned, for patients with diabetes mellitus, since this pathology smooths out unpleasant sensations. Moreover, the case itself is much more serious than the others, since in the absence of symptoms the patient simply does not know that he needs help.
Atherosclerosis and heart attack
Vascular atherosclerosis is the main cause of ischemia. The plaques that form in this disease in the circulatory system consist of deposits of cholesterol, calcium-rich cells and some other components.
Much depends on the characteristics of the individual case. First, a very small growth is formed, which grows over time, expands, preventing blood from flowing through the vessel. Due to such a neoplasm, the cells of the body do not receive enough oxygen and nutrients. However, the most dangerous thing happens when a plaque comes off and begins a journey through the circulatory system. It can clog any vessel if the size of the formation allows it. This is what leads to ischemia.
Localization of the plaque is a place of special fragility, since the neoplasm changes the structure of cells. The vessel becomes thinner, he is threatened with a violation of integrity. The protective reaction of the body is the formation of a blood clot from the blood in order to block possible bleeding. Such a formation rapidly grows and overlaps the vessel. The greatest damage is done when a large duct is blocked in this way.
The cause of tissue integrity impairment may be stress, intense experience, and physical stress. It is known that heart attack occurs more often in the morning. This tendency is especially characteristic for the repeated case. This is explained by a sharp transition from the calm of a night's rest to the activity of morning rush.