What Is Heart Attack Symptoms

Typical symptoms of heart attack are persistent severe pain especially behind the sternum, which can also radiate into the shoulder blades, arms, neck, and jaw or even in the upper abdomen. In the chest is one of the symptoms of a heart attack often also a feeling of pressure with shortness of breath - as if someone had the heart attack sufferers in a "headlock". Other heart attack symptoms include cold sweating and nausea.

Heart attack: symptoms and signs

Heart attack symptoms are often associated with fear of death and confusion in the elderly. There are also other symptoms such as weakness, nausea, and paleness on the face. Heart attack symptoms include cold sweats, palpitations, and heart stumbling.

People with a CHD use a nitro spray against the symptoms - it is typical that this has little or no effect on a heart attack. Especially in seniors, people with diabetes and women are missing heart attacks often typical symptoms and signs such as the typical chest pain ("mute infarction") - and causes the diagnosis of heart attack is late or misjudged.

Heart attack: diagnosis

For heart attack diagnostics, an ECG is written, which usually shows typical changes, but in some cases can also be inconspicuous in the first few hours. Therefore, this is repeated after six to twelve hours and supplemented by blood tests.

When tissue is killed, certain enzymes are released from the decayed cells, which can be detected at different times (troponin T, heart muscle-specific creatine phosphokinase = CK-MB, myoglobin). For this purpose, an ultrasound or X-ray examination of the coronary arteries is performed.

Heart attack - therapy

The faster the therapy begins after a heart attack, the better the chances of restoring blood flow in the affected areas and limiting tissue loss. Immediate therapy after a heart attack is also important to keep the complication rate and risk of death low. First measure - even before a therapy: In case of suspected heart attack call the emergency doctor! In the meantime, it may be advisable for the person concerned to sit still with his upper body raised and take one tablet of acetylsalicylic acid (500 mg).

Heart attack: bypass surgery

When transporting to the hospital, the doctor administers oxygen, painkillers, and tranquilizers. Therapy and monitoring in the intensive care unit following in the clinic. Usually either a cardiac catheterization is performed (where the affected vessel can be widened directly) or an infusion to dissolve the blood clot is given. Sometimes the heart attack therapy directly performs a bypass surgery; However, this is associated with a high risk in such acute cases.

Myocardial infarction: therapy with drugs

In the next step of treatment after a heart attack, the person concerned receives medication for blood thinning, improvement of the heart function and improvement of the prognosis, which he sometimes has to take continuously after the hospital stay after a heart attack.

Almost always following the hospitalization in the context of heart attack therapy followed by a follow-up treatment, where the person learns to live with his illness. Regular follow-up examinations are indispensable following therapy after a heart attack.