Have you or your loved ones been diagnosed with acute coronary insufficiency, and you don’t know anything about this disease? Read my article that will answer most of the important questions regarding this cardiac pathology.
The activity of the heart, with its continuity and constancy, is able to maintain the same level of supply of nutrients and oxygen to all body tissues. At the same time, the physiological characteristics of the regulation of cardiac and vascular activity suggest both an increase and a decrease in the intensity of its work, which, in the presence of pathologies of the heart, leads to functional deficiency and "starvation" of tissues. Moreover, the peculiarity of the blood supply to the heart is that it receives nutrients and oxygen only during diastole. Therefore, the stress of physiological mechanisms during physical exertion, which leads to an increase in its rhythm, significantly reduces the duration of diastole, depleting blood flow in the heart. In general, the heart muscle suffers from ischemia, which is accompanied by burning pains behind the sternum. In this condition of deficiency of blood supply to the heart, acute coronary insufficiency develops . The reasons for the development of this pathological condition can be divided into 2 large groups:
- coronarogenic causes due to the fact that the coronary vessels have foci of atherosclerotic damage or are narrowed, and their wall can be sclerosed.
- Necoronarogenic, associated with a pathological change in the coronary vessels of the heart, and independent of the state of the arteries.
If it is necessary to start the reserve capacity of the body to perform any physical work or during emotional stress, cardiac activity should be accelerated. However, this is associated with an aggravation of an existing functional defect in the vessels of the heart.
Symptoms of acute coronary insufficiency.
Under the action of adrenaline, which is released in humans at the time of stress or during exertion, the vessels narrow their lumen in order to increase the blood flow velocity to adequately ensure the supply of tissues with nutrients. A slightly narrowed atherosclerotic plaque, the lumen of the vessel or its sclerotized wall is further narrowed, which causes a deficiency in the influx of nutrients into the heart with blood. There is an acute coronary insufficiency. The patient immediately begins to feel a sharp burning pain behind the sternum, which does not allow him to do the work. This condition is classified as coronary heart disease and has the following forms: angina pectoris, myocardial infarction. With a long-term current pathology, even at rest, the heart may experience circulatory deficiency, which is manifested by shortness of breath, blue lips, tip of the nose, weak pulse in the arteries of the limbs, sweating and anxious facial expressions. Acute coronary insufficiency, the symptoms of which are quite vivid, does not require additional specific manipulations from the patient, because in general the symptomatology plays a role:
- When walking or performing physical activity, stress, there is an acute burning pain behind the sternum, which has a pressing character, radiating to the interscapular space, the left arm, neck, under the left clavicle.
- Such an attack usually lasts no more than 15-25 minutes, and pain gradually decreases, while with a heart attack the pain does not have such a tendency. With its duration of more than half an hour, it is possible to diagnose myocardial infarction in the acute stage.
- Diagnosis is based on the principle of pain relief: angina pectoris is relieved 15 minutes after taking nitroglycerin, and heart attacks cannot be reduced the same way and last longer than 30 minutes. To relieve pain infarction syndrome, narcotic analgesics are used , the possibility of using which is available only in a hospital.
Treatment of acute coronary insufficiency.
If you or your loved ones have acute coronary insufficiency, treatment is prescribed exclusively by a doctor, but can be carried out by the patient during the attack and between them, as well as in a hospital.
If there is pain behind the sternum, the patient needs to take nitroglycerin sublingually, dissolving the tablet completely. After 10 minutes, if the intensity of the pain has not decreased, you must repeat the reception. Treatment between seizures is carried out with long-acting nitrates, selective adrenergic blockers and prophylactic anti-atherosclerotic drugs. Myocardial pains are not stopped by nitroglycerin or other vasodilator, therefore they are the basis for urgent treatment in a clinic. Various drugs are used there, depending on the specific case. These are narcotic analgesics, antiplatelet agents and thrombolytics, adrenergic blockers, and sometimes, with extensive heart attacks, diuretics to relieve blood circulation and reduce blood volume, and laxatives so that the patient does not strain during bowel movements, which can disrupt the venous return to the heart. Thus, summing up all of the above, it is worth noting that acute coronary insufficiency is a serious pathology of cardiac activity, requiring careful and constant treatment.