Diseases associated with the cardiovascular system, today are leading in the number of deaths. Moreover, the frequency of development of oncological pathologies is significantly lower, which rationally explains the importance of the problem of their timely diagnosis and treatment. But an extensive heart attack, affecting large foci of the heart muscle, is increasingly found among people over the age of 40 years. Extensive include heart attacks of the interventricular septum, the anterior and posterior walls of the left ventricle, which significantly disrupt the functioning of the heart. At the same time, not only the heart muscle itself suffers, but also the entire hemodynamics of the body as a whole.
An extensive heart attack can be caused by the following pathologies:
Provoking an extensive heart attack factors are considered physical activity, emotional overexcitation or stress. They are realized through a series of pathological changes in the muscle tissue of the heart.
The mechanism of myocardial infarction
The mechanism of the development of a heart attack can be explained as follows: since atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries significantly reduces blood flow, some tissues experience hypoxia - a lack of oxygen. This condition is already classified as coronary heart disease (coronary heart disease) and is characterized by the presence of atherosclerotic plaque, narrowing the lumen of the vessel, and arterial sclerosis. During exercise, the blood flow intensity should increase, which is provided by the compensatory mechanisms of the body.
In this case, the inner shell of the artery, under which the plaque is located, partially tears, where platelets intensively settle. Thus, a thrombus is formed, which further narrows the lumen of the artery and significantly reduces blood flow through them. Because of this, the areas of the myocardium suffer from a lack of oxygen, which forms the center of the heart attack. It is worth noting that with such a mechanism for implementing the process, the focus of ischemic necrosis will be quite large, therefore, the patient will subsequently receive an extensive myocardial infarction.
Heart attack symptoms
Patients almost immediately begin to experience acute burning pain behind the sternum, which is not relieved by a single dose of nitroglycerin. If repeated administration of nitroglycerin did not cause a decrease in intense pain and they last more than 20 minutes, then there should be no doubt about a heart attack, which always necessitates calling an ambulance.
Diagnosis and consequences of a massive heart attack
With this disease, delivery to the inpatient department is required. Here diagnostic measures will be carried out to clarify the diagnosis and relieve pain symptoms. An ECG will clarify the nature of the lesion and its volume. At the same time, an extensive heart attack is characterized by numerous changes on the ECG. A biochemical blood test is also performed, which will reveal markers of damage to the heart muscle. The most indicative method for diagnosing a heart attack in the first stages is the ECG and ultrasound methods, which will show hypodynamic zones that are not involved in the reduction. This will be the hearth infarction, the volumes of which are visible by instrumental diagnostic methods. It can affect large areas of the muscle and turn them off from work.
Thus, the consequences of an extensive heart attack can be the most deplorable - the heart tissue will simply die, a scar will form at this place. In the acute stage of a massive heart attack, blood circulation deficiency begins to appear in the left circle, and in the lungs blood begins to stagnate in the lungs due to weakness of the left ventricle and loss of a large portion of the muscle from contraction. This can cause pulmonary edema and sudden death. But this is the case with a late appeal to the hospital, because with the timely (no later than 4 hours after the onset of pain symptoms) use of thrombolytics, blood flow can be restored and the volume of tissue damage can be reduced. Only with timely admission to the hospital there are great chances to significantly reduce the amount of damage, the severity of symptoms and save the patient's life.