Myocardial Infarction

Most of you probably do not know the meaning of myocardial infarction, or chances are you have never even heard of the word. Myocardial infarction is generally referred to as a “heart attack”. In most cases, a heart attack is a life threatening situation which takes place when sufficient oxygen is not supplied to the muscle of the heart. This causes permanent damage to the heart resulting in the death of the tissue. According to the National Library of Medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov) “one out of every five deaths is due to myocardial infarction, which is a major cause of sudden death in adults.”

Clots that obstruct blood and oxygen flow through the coronary arteries and to the heart is the most common cause of myocardial infarctions. These clots are a resultant of plaque buildup in the blood vessels, known as atherosclerosis, and constricting of blood vessels due to smoking and hypertension. Direct contributing factors of myocardial infarction also include age, gender, heredity, and chronic diseases, such as diabetes. Obesity is also directly related to atherosclerosis and diabetes, both of which are major risk factors for myocardial infarction.

It’s not that hard to make out the symptoms of myocardial infarction and include chest pain that spreads to the shoulders, arms, neck, back, jaws, and teeth. The pain can also be accompanied by abdominal pain and nausea. Feelings of impending doom, sweating, dizziness, and shortness of breath are also very common during a heart attack. However, apart from all these symptoms, perhaps the biggest giveaway of a myocardial infarction is a feeling of squeezing or heavy pressure across the chest. Quiet heart attacks or myocardial infarctions with very few symptoms generally tend to occur in people with diabetes, or in elderly people.

Chest pain that is relieved by rest or nitroglycerin is called angina, which is caused by too little blood flow to the heart and can be apparent during periods of strenuous physical activity. There are various ways to detect that a myocardial infarction has occurred even if symptoms were mild. There may be obvious physical signs such as irregular heart rate, high or low blood pressure, or elevated levels of certain enzymes in the blood.

It is important to realize that a myocardial infarction should be treated as a medical emergency even if you are not having many symptoms. It could be that what you think is a heart attack, is actually just a little gastric upset. However, if it is accompanied by any of the other symptoms, then emergency assistance should be called for immediately. Medications can be administered to stop the heart attack and regulate the heart rate; which if not brought under control immediately following could cause death.

Today, there are a variety of resources which are available on myocardial infarction online. You can find information related to risk factors, symptoms, and treatment of heart attack.  Not only can you visit any number of online resources, you can also visit your primary care physician. Being aware of the symptoms could just save your life or someone else’s.

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