Myocardial infarction or Heart attack is caused by the death of heart muscles. This is usually caused by decreased blood supply to the heart muscles. Although heart pumps blood, heart muscles cannot get oxygen/nutrients from the blood it pumps. So the heart is supplied by the coronary arteries. Coronary arteries are blocked by the accumulation of cholesterol. This leads to formation of blood clots inside the arterial lumen. Treatment includes removal of the block and to prevent future blocking. If the block cannot be removed then the doctors create a separate path for the blood to travel (bypass grafting).
Myocardial infarction is a serious disease with high mortality. Death of large part of the heart will arrest blood circulation in the body and lack of oxygen to the brain can cause death.
Heart muscles cannot regenerate, so death of heart muscles causes permanent damage to the heart as well. This can leads to long term heart failure with ankle edema, difficulty to breathe and poor exercise tolerance.
Symptoms
Left side tightening type chest pain, difficulty in breathing; sweating and apprehension are the main symptoms.
Treatment
Giving oxygen to the patient is usually the first step. Then patient is given Aspirin 75mg orally to prevent further clot formation. Glyceryl Tri Nitrate tablets are given sub lingual (under the tongue) to dilate the coronary arteries. These measures increase the oxygen level in heart muscles.
Patient should rest in the bed to decrease the demand put on heart muscles as well. Then the doctor will give a shot of Morphine for pain relief. Morphine has some arterial dilatation properties as well.
Clearing the blocked arteries and maintaining adequate blood supply to the brain are the main priorities in the first 24 hours. For that powerful thrombolytics (drugs that dilutes formed clots) are used. E.g. Streptokinase, Recombinant tPA. If above steps are failed, the doctor will dilate the coronary arteries by using a balloon inserted through skin (per cutaneous angioplasty).
Once patient recovers from the initial ordeal, doctors try to find a cause for this heart attack. This can be due to increased fats and cholesterol in the diet, Diabetes mellitus, hypertension or stressful life style. Some people can have genetic predisposition for the heart attacks and increased cholesterol in the blood as well.
Then doctors will try to correct above problems to prevent further damage to the heart. Patient needs life style modification like eating low cholesterol diet and regular exercises to prevent heart attacks in the future. After a myocardial infarction exercises should be undertaken with expert guidance.
Sources
Clinical Medicine by Kumar and Clark
Myocardial infarction is a serious disease with high mortality. Death of large part of the heart will arrest blood circulation in the body and lack of oxygen to the brain can cause death.
Heart muscles cannot regenerate, so death of heart muscles causes permanent damage to the heart as well. This can leads to long term heart failure with ankle edema, difficulty to breathe and poor exercise tolerance.
Symptoms
Left side tightening type chest pain, difficulty in breathing; sweating and apprehension are the main symptoms.
Treatment
Giving oxygen to the patient is usually the first step. Then patient is given Aspirin 75mg orally to prevent further clot formation. Glyceryl Tri Nitrate tablets are given sub lingual (under the tongue) to dilate the coronary arteries. These measures increase the oxygen level in heart muscles.
Patient should rest in the bed to decrease the demand put on heart muscles as well. Then the doctor will give a shot of Morphine for pain relief. Morphine has some arterial dilatation properties as well.
Clearing the blocked arteries and maintaining adequate blood supply to the brain are the main priorities in the first 24 hours. For that powerful thrombolytics (drugs that dilutes formed clots) are used. E.g. Streptokinase, Recombinant tPA. If above steps are failed, the doctor will dilate the coronary arteries by using a balloon inserted through skin (per cutaneous angioplasty).
Once patient recovers from the initial ordeal, doctors try to find a cause for this heart attack. This can be due to increased fats and cholesterol in the diet, Diabetes mellitus, hypertension or stressful life style. Some people can have genetic predisposition for the heart attacks and increased cholesterol in the blood as well.
Then doctors will try to correct above problems to prevent further damage to the heart. Patient needs life style modification like eating low cholesterol diet and regular exercises to prevent heart attacks in the future. After a myocardial infarction exercises should be undertaken with expert guidance.
Sources
Clinical Medicine by Kumar and Clark
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