Q What Are The Symptoms Of Heart Attack
The Lima The King Of The Heart Bypass Surgery Grafts
We call it the LIMA graft and its the gold standard of bypass grafts and almost always attached to main artery that runs down the front of the heart called the LAD . This is by a mile the most important graft, and in fact many people can simply live off the blood supply they get from this graft. The LIMA graft has superior biological properties to other grafts such as vein grafts and therefore has an excellent chance of staying open.
Now we can start to answer the question how long does heart bypass surgery last? Studies have shown thatthe LIMA graft is around 95-99% likely to be open and working at 1 month after operation, 90-95% likely to be open at 1 year 5 years, and around 80-90% likely to be open at > 10 years. These studies show that the LIMA graft has excellent not only short, but long term results. Unfortunately there is only 1 LIMA graft but often patients have many blockages requiring bypass so we have to use veins or other arteries.
Men And Heart Disease
The term heart disease refers to several types of heart conditions, including coronary artery disease and heart attack.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men in the United States.1
This map shows death rates from heart disease in men in the United States. The darker red indicates a higher death rate.
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Understand Your Risk Of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women and men. But both heart attacks and heart disease can appear differently in women than in men. This disparity means that women are more likely to have undiagnosed heart conditions, and they may not even know when theyre at risk for heart attack.
If youre a woman, its important to educate yourself about your heart health. Risk factors that increase your chances of heart disease and heart attack include:
Heart disease is common, but its preventable in many cases. Our team is dedicated to helping you strengthen your heart and live your healthiest life.
We partner with you, evaluating your medical history, family history, and current condition to propose a heart-healthy plan thats right for you. Managing pre-existing conditions and making a range of healthy lifestyle choices can make a big difference for your heart and help reduce your risk of heart attack.
Trust your heart health to our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute. To learn more about the risks of heart disease and how to spot a heart attack, book an appointment at one of our offices in Newark, Secaucus, or Paramus, New Jersey. Use the online scheduler or give us a call.
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Men Versus Women: What Is The Difference
As with men, womens most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.
Men normally feel pain and numbness in the left arm or side of the chest, but in women, these symptoms may appear on the right side. In addition:
- Women may feel completely exhausted, drained, dizzy or nauseous.
- Women may feel upper back pain that travels up into their jaw.
- Women may think their stomach pain is the flu, heartburn or an ulcer.
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Heart Attack Symptoms In Women Vs Men
Women are more likely than men to have silent heart attacks and heart attacks without chest pain. Heart attacks are also more likely to start when a woman is at rest or experiencing mental stress.
That means its especially important for women to watch out for symptoms like shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, nausea or vomiting, or pain in the jaw, arms or back.
Also, we now know that young women are particularly prone to a type of heart event called a spontaneous coronary artery dissection , which we talk about in more depth below.
What Are The First Signs Of A Heart Attack In A Woman
Heart Attack Symptoms in Women
- Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest.
- Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
- Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
- Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
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How To Get Checked Out
Men may not be aware they had an SMI until weeks or even months later when they see their doctor for a regular visit, or because of persistent symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, or heartburn.
SMI is usually detected from an electrocardiogram or echocardiogram, which can highlight heart muscle damage. Another method is a blood test for the molecular footprints of troponin T, a protein released by injured heart cells. That test is often used in emergency departments for patients with heart attack symptoms.
Once an SMI is diagnosed, your doctor can identify your main risk factors and help design a treatment strategy, including changing your diet, exercising regularly, and taking a statin as well as other medication to help prevent a second heart attack .
If you do notice any symptoms of a SMI, do not brush them aside, even if you do not think they are serious, says Dr. Plutzky. Playing it safe is always a better move than risking the potential harmful downside.
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Chest Pain And Heart Attack Symptoms
Chest pain is only one of the possible signs of an impending heart attack. If you notice one or more of the signs below in yourself or someone else, call 911 or your local emergency number right away.
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Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, burning, tightness, or pain in the center of the chest
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Pain, numbness, pinching, prickling, or other uncomfortable sensations in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach
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Shortness of breath
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Heat/flushing or a cold sweat
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Sudden heaviness, weakness, or aching in one or both arms
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Early Signs Of A Heart Attack
Are your vague symptoms just fatigue or something serious? Learn the early warning signs that could signal a heart attack.
Contributor
Sutter Medical Foundation
Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
Many of us have experienced that moment. Perhaps were driving in traffic or working out at the gym when we feel a twinge in our chest, or an aggressive pulse. Or maybe we just dont feel right. We might pause at these moments and wonder if its time to hightail it the doctor or if this is normal.
The reality is people can notice subtle heart attack symptoms months before an actual event occurs, says Sutter Zi-Jian Xu, M.D., a cardiologist in the Sutter Health network.
Dr. Xu frequently discusses heart attack symptoms and prevention with his patients. Heres what you need to know.
Can A Heart Attack Be Mild
A mild heart attack affects a relatively small portion of the heart muscle, or does not cause much permanent heart damage. This is because the blockage in a coronary artery occurs in a small artery that supplies a small portion of the heart muscle does not completely block blood flow to the heart or lasts briefly.
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Will I Have To Take Medicine For The Rest Of My Life
If you have had a heart attack, your doctor will probably want you to take certain medicines for a long time. This can help reduce your risk of more heart problems. Your doctor can answer your questions about these medicines. They can tell you the benefits and risks of taking them.
- Aspirin can reduce the risk of another heart attack. For patients who have had a heart attack, a low dose of aspirin each day can keep your blood from forming clots that can eventually block the arteries. However, a daily dose of aspirin may not be right for everyone. Talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of aspirin therapy.
- Antiplatelet medicines also help stop blood clots from forming. These drugs are especially important to take for at least a year if you have had a stent placed in your heart.
- Beta blockers are a group of drugs that lower the heart rate and blood pressure. They help improve blood flow to the heart.
- ACE inhibitors are a group of drugs that can help if your heart is not pumping blood well. This medicine helps open your arteries and lower your blood pressure. This improves blood flow.
- Statins are a group of drugs that are used to control cholesterol. They lower bad cholesterol levels and may help increase good cholesterol .
Heart Attack With Stents
A stent is used to reduce the chances of a heart attack. This wire-mesh tube is inserted into a blocked artery to help increase blood flow to your heart. The stent is left in place permanently to improve your condition.
When done with a coronary angioplasty, a stent placement opens your arteries and increases blood flow to the heart muscle. Stents reduce your overall risk of experiencing narrowing of that same artery.
However, its still possible to have a heart attack in the future from a different clogged artery. Thats why adopting heart-healthy lifestyle habits is so impotant.
Making these changes can play an important role in helping prevent a future attack.
As a rule of thumb, you should see your doctor right away if you experience chest pain even after a stent placement. In the rare event that a stent closes, youll need surgery to open the artery up again.
Its also possible to experience a blood clot after getting a stent, which could increase your risk of a heart attack.
Your doctor will likely recommend taking aspirin, as well as prescription anti-clotting drugs, such as ticagrelor or clopidogrel to prevent blood clots.
A heart-healthy lifestyle can complement a medical treatment plan for heart disease. Consider your current lifestyle habits and look for ways you might improve them.
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Less Likely To Be A Heart Attack
Sensation of pain, or of pressure, tightness, squeezing, or burning
Sharp or knifelike pain brought on by breathing or coughing
Gradual onset of pain over the course of a few minutes
Sudden stabbing pain that lasts only a few seconds
Pain in diffuse area, including a constant pain in middle of chest
Pain clearly on one side of the body or the other
Pain that extends to the left arm, neck, jaw, or back
Pain that is localized to one small spot
Pain or pressure accompanied by other signs, such as difficulty breathing, a cold sweat, or sudden nausea
Pain that lasts for many hours or days without any other symptoms
Pain or pressure that appears during or after physical exertion or emotional stress or while you are at rest
Pain reproduced by pressing on the chest or with body motion
Q Can Stress Cause Heart Attack
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Heart Attack Symptoms: Women Vs Men
Women may experience classic symptoms such as chest pain and shortness of breath as many men do, but they also tend to experience stomach pain, back pain, and other non-classic symptoms.
Because of the subtlety in those symptoms, many women brush off these warning signs and already have heart damage by the time they get to the Emergency Department.
And many women put their families before their own health. But you cant take care of your loved ones if your own health is not where it needs to be.
Heart Attack Warning Signs For Men
The classic symptom of chest pain may not be present in every heart attack, but it remains the most common warning sign, especially among men.
The pain is often described as a heavy weight on the chest. It tends to be located in the center of the chest, but it can be felt from armpit to armpit.
Other heart attack symptoms that are common among men include:
- shortness of breath, which sometimes develops before any other symptoms, and may be present when sitting still or moving around
- a sudden cold sweat
- symptoms that come on quickly
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Perform Cpr If You Are Qualified
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is one link in what the American Heart Association calls the “chain of survival.” The chain of survival is a series of actions that, when done in sequence, will give a person having a heart attack the best chance of survival.
In an emergency, the first link in the chain of survival is early access. This means activating the EMS system by calling 911 . The next link in the chain of survival is to do CPR until thereâs access to a defibrillator.
The most common cause of death from a heart attack in adults is a disturbance in the electrical rhythm of the heart called ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation can be treated, but it needs an electrical shock to the chest called defibrillation. If a defibrillator is not readily available, brain death will happen in less than 10 minutes.
One way of buying time until a defibrillator becomes available is to give artificial breathing and circulation with CPR. By giving a combination of manual chest compressions and artificial, or “mouth-to-mouth,” respiration, the rescuer can breathe for the other person and help circulate some of the blood throughout their body. Even without mouth-to-mouth, “hands-only” CPR can be very effective.
The earlier you give CPR to a person in cardiopulmonary arrest , the better the chance of resuscitation. By doing CPR, you keep oxygenated blood flowing to the heart and brain until a defibrillator becomes available.
What Are The Early Signs Of A Heart Attack
There are heart attack symptoms in women that are different from heart attack symptoms in men. But the common signs and symptoms they usually share are as follows:
- Chest pain or discomfort: The discomfort usually lasts for more than a few minutes or it may go away and come back. The discomfort may feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain at the center of the chest.
- Discomfort in other areas of the upper body: This may include pain or discomfort in the back, jaw, stomach or in one or both arms.
- Shortness of breath: This may occur with, before or without chest pain or discomfort.
- Breaking out in a cold sweat
- Nausea or light-headedness
Meanwhile, heart attack symptoms in women sometimes go unnoticed. These include the following:
- Treating or managing conditions that can be a risk factors of heart attack such as diabetes
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What A Heart Attack Feels Like For A Man
The classic symptom of chest pain may not be present in every heart attack, but it remains the most common sign among men. The pain is often described as a pressure or squeezing sensation. Chest pain tends to be located in the center of the chest, but it can be felt from armpit to armpit.
Other common heart attack symptoms for men include:
- shortness of breath, which sometimes develops before any other symptoms, and may be present when sitting still or moving around
- back pain, often moving up to the neck
- arm pain, typically in the left arm, but can be in either or both arms
- jaw pain that sometimes feels like a bad toothache
What To Do When They Happen
If you or someone youâre with has chest discomfort or other heart attack symptoms, call 911 right away. While your first impulse may be to drive yourself or the heart attack victim to the hospital, itâs better to get an ambulance. Emergency medical services personnel can start treatment on the way to the hospital. Theyâre also trained to revive a person if their heart stops.
If you can’t reach EMS, drive the person to the hospital. If youâre the one with the symptoms, donât drive yourself to the hospital unless you have no other choice.
Many people delay treatment because they doubt they are having a heart attack. They don’t want to bother or worry their friends and family.
Itâs always better to be safe than sorry.
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A Tear In One Of The Main Arteries Of The Neck Is A Rare Cause Of Stroke
You probably dont give much thought to your neck, unless something goes wrong and you start to feel neck pain.. This underappreciated body part has to be strong enough to support a heavy weight yet still allow you to tilt, turn, and nod your head easily.
Most of the time, neck pain doesnt signal a serious medical problem. But its worth learning about one of the rare exceptions: a tear in one of the arteries of the neck, known as a cervical artery dissection . Although these occur in only about two in 100,000 people per year, they are one of the most common causes of stroke in people under age 50.
Over the past two decades, awareness of cervical artery dissection has grown tremendously, says Dr. Natalia Rost, associate professor of neurology at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. This may stem in part from the recognition that stroke rates seem to be rising among younger people, despite an overall downward trend in deaths caused by stroke.