Heart Attack

What Is a Heart Attack?

A heart attack happens when something blocks the blood flow to your heart so it can’t get the
oxygen it needs.
More than a million Americans have heart attacks each year. Heart attacks are also called
myocardial infarctions (MI). "Myo" means muscle, "cardinal" refers to the heart, and
"infarction" means death of tissue because of a lack of blood supply. This tissue death can
cause lasting damage to your heart muscle.

Heart Attack Symptoms

Symptoms of a heart attack include:

 Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, tightness, squeezing, or pain in your chest or arm or

below your breastbone
 Discomfort that goes into your back, jaw, throat, or arm
 Fullness, indigestion, or a choking feeling (it may feel like heartburn)
 Sweating, upset stomach, vomiting, or dizziness
 Severe weakness, anxiety, fatigue, or shortness of breath
 Fast or uneven heartbeat

Symptoms can be different from person to person or from one heart attack to another.
Women are more likely to have these heart attack symptoms:

 Unusual fatigue
 Shortness of breath
 Nausea or vomiting
 Dizziness or lightheadedness
 Discomfort in your gut. It may feel like indigestion.
 Discomfort in the neck, shoulder, or upper back

With some heart attacks, you won’t notice any symptoms (a "silent" myocardial infarction). This is
more common in people who have diabetes.

Angina
Angina isn’t a condition or disease. It’s a symptom, and sometimes it can signal a heart attack.
The sensations may occur with normal activities or exertion but then go away with rest or
when you take nitroglycerin.
You may feel:
  Pressure, pain, squeezing, or a sense of fullness in the center of the chest
 Pain or discomfort in the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw

Call 911 if it gets worse, lasts more than 5 minutes, or doesn't improve after you've taken
nitroglycerin. Doctors call that “unstable” angina,” and it’s an emergency that could be related
to a heart attack that is about to happen.
If you instead have “stable” angina, which is the most common kind, your symptoms usually
happen with predictable triggers (such as a strong emotion, physical activity, extreme hot and
cold temperatures, or even a heavy meal). The symptoms go away if you rest or take
nitroglycerin that your doctor has prescribed. If not, call 911.

Heart Attack Causes

Your heart muscle needs a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood. Your coronary arteries give
your heart this critical blood supply. If you have coronary artery disease,
those arteries become narrow, and blood can’t flow as well as it should. When your blood
supply is blocked, you have a heart attack.
Fat, calcium, proteins, and inflammatory cells build up in your arteries to form plaques. These
plaque deposits are hard on the outside and soft and mushy on the inside.
When the plaque is hard, the outer shell cracks. This is called a rupture. Platelets (disc-shaped
things in your blood that help it clot) come to the area, and blood clots form around the plaque.
If a blood clot blocks your artery, your heart muscle becomes starved for oxygen. The muscle
cells soon die, causing permanent damage.
Rarely, a spasm in your coronary artery can also cause a heart attack. During this coronary
spasm, your arteries restrict or spasm on and off, cutting off the blood supply to your heart
muscle (ischemia). It can happen while you’re at rest and even if you don’t have serious
coronary artery disease.
Each coronary artery sends blood to a different part of your heart muscle. How much the
muscle is damaged depends on the size of the area that the blocked artery supplies and the
amount of time between the attack and treatment.
Your heart muscle starts to heal soon after a heart attack. This takes about 8 weeks. Just like
a skin wound, a scar forms in the damaged area. But the new scar tissue doesn’t move the way
it should. So, your heart can’t pump as much after a heart attack. How much that ability to
pump is affected depends on the size and location of the scar.

Heart Attack Treatment

A heart attack is a medical emergency that needs immediate care to prevent permanent heart
damage or death. Treatment often begins in the ambulance if you called 911, or in the
emergency room if someone else took you to the hospital.