First 90 minutes after start of chest pain important

A heart attack is the effect of an artery which is completely blocked or significantly narrowed by a clot forming in one of the coronary artery supplying the heart, explains Dr Abdul Rehman, Interventional Cardiologist, Zulekha Hospital, Dubai.

“The clot interrupts blood flow to the heart muscles, so an area of heart muscle is deprived of adequate blood,” he said.

This may cause permanent scarring and damage to an area of the heart muscle which leads to dysfunction of the heart which in most of the cases is irreversible.

The warnings of a possible heart attack are:

• Chest pain associated with sweating radiating to jaw or left arm.
• Sometimes pain may be in upper abdomen with sweating
• Shortness of breathing or palpitation and irregular heart beatings
• Dizziness — fainting or sudden collapse
• People may feel neck or jaw pain, fatigue, headache, indigestion, abdominal pain or nausea.

Risk factors for heart attack divided into avoidable and unavoidable. Unavoidable risk factors are age, male gender and family history of heart disease. Avoidable risk factors are high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides levels, smoking, obesity, stress and lack of exercise.

It is very frightening for anyone when they came to know that the chest pain they had was a heart attack. As the damage to the heart muscle is irreversible, therefore the timing of reaching the hospital is very important, said the doctor. It has been proved that the initial 90 minutes from the start of chest pain to the initiation in treatment is very important.

What to do when you attend a person with chest pain

• Observe the person whether he is responsive or not
• Check his breathing and pulse.
• Don’t panic, call ambulance immediately.
• Don’t leave the person alone.
• Don’t wait if the symptoms will go away. These will recur at any time.

In the hospital, at emergency room doctors will take a brief history, do the ECG and inform patient and family members about the condition and options of management.

You will be given drugs to relieve your pain and prevent progression of the clot and formation of other clots. At present the best treatment for acute heart attack is immediate angioplasty with a stent.

Patient will be advised to take bed rest. If the heart attack is minor, you no longer will have pain and you’ll be allowed to leave after 12 hours.

Usually uncomplicated heart attacks will necessitate a hospital stay of about four days, the duration depending on the patient’s condition and the treatment being given.

Category: Health and Fitness