Heart attack

Introduction: Heart attack

Heart attacks or "acute myocardial infarction" (AMI), are very common and also very deadly. The underlying cause of a heart attack is usually "coronary thrombosis", which is a blockage of the blood vessels of the heart. When the heart actually stops in a heart attack, this is called "cardiac arrest". The most common symptom is chest pain or chest discomfort, but these may also be mild or even absent, and in many cases even the patient is uncertain if they are having a heart attack. If there is any doubt, seek immediate emergency medical help.

The classic fatal misdiagnosis of heart attack is a person believing that their chest pain is simply heartburn (i.e., reflux, indigestion, GERD, etc.), and failing to seek medical attention for what turns out to be a heart attack. Similarly, people can mistakenly believe they have angina, when it is actually a heart attack.

However, many cases of heart attack go undiagnosed even in the emergency department. This diagnostic error in the ER makes AMI the single largest malpractice litigation-related medical condition. Because the typical profile for AMI in older men (usually over 45), AMI is often underdiagnosed in women or younger adults. In any age patients, AMI can have a variety of presentations, and diagnostic tests such as an EKG may still be normal. Misdiagnoses of AMI include gastrointestinal disorders (26% of misdiagnoses), musculoskeletal pain (21%), or respiratory ailments such as pneumonia or bronchitis (6%).

Other the other hand, there are also less serious disorders that are mistakenly believed to be heart attack. A common example are people having a panic attack (anxiety attack) and will rush to emergency in the belief they are dying from a heart attack. There are many other causes of chest pain, many of them not as serious (e.g. heartburn, GERD, gastric reflux, etc.). Nevertheless, it is important not to take chances, and seek immediate emergency medical attention for chest pain, or any possible heart attack or similar symptoms.

Symptoms of Heart attack

• Chest discomfort - usually in the center of the chest, and may come and go.
  • Uncomfortable chest pressure
  • Chest squeezing
  • Chest fullness
  • Chest pain

See full list of 43 symptoms of Heart attack

Medical Textbooks Online about Heart attack

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2007 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic Tests for Heart attack

• Electrocardiogram (ECG)
• Blood tests
• Cardiac enzymes
• Nuclear scan
• Chest radiographs

See full list of 6 diagnostic tests for Heart attack

Wrongly Diagnosed with Heart attack?

• Misdiagnosis of Heart attack
• Failure to diagnose Heart attack
• Underlying causes of Heart attack (possibly wrongly diagnosed)
• Failure to diagnose Heart attack

Misdiagnosis and Heart attack

Heart attacks can be undiagnosed: Although the most severe symptoms of heart attack are hard to miss, there are varying degrees of severity. It is altogether too...more »

Heart attacks can be overdiagnosed: Although many people die from heart attacks, there are also many cases where people fear that they have a heart attack, but...more »

Heart attack can be over-diagnosed: Although heart attack is often undiagnosed, leading to fatality, it can also be over-diagnosed. People become concerned that a condition is a heart attack, whereas there are various less dangerous...more »

Silent attack in diabetics: Heart disease is the leading cause of death among diabetics. Patients with type 2 diabetes above the age of 60-65 years are susceptible to silent heart attacks.Diabetes...more »

Epigastric pain could be dangerous: Pain in the epigastic region could be due to something as simple as reflux disesea or more serious entities such as rupture of an aortic aneurysm or cancer of...more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Heart attack

Causes of Heart attack

• Heart disease
• Coronary heart disease
• Atherosclerosis
• Coronary thrombosis (see Heart symptoms)
• Arrhythmias

See full list of 13 causes of Heart attack

More information about causes of Heart attack:

• Triggers for Heart attack
• Medications, drugs, or substances causing Heart attack (237 listings)
• Drug interactions causing Heart attack (59 listings)
• Underlying causes of Heart attack
• Heart attack as a complication caused by other conditions
• Heart attack as a symptom
• Medical news summaries relating to Causes of Heart attack
• Cause statistics for Heart attack

Treatments for Heart attack

• Call emergency immediately - 911 in the USA.
• Go to a hospital immediately - if you cannot call emergency.
• Emergency treatment
  • Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
  • Expired air resuscitation (EAR)

See full list of 20 treatments for Heart attack

Videos for Heart attack

Patient Surveys for Heart attack

• Patient Profile Survey
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• Survey about the symptoms of your Heart attack
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Prognosis for Heart attack

More about prognosis of Heart attack

Reseach about Heart attack

Visit our research pages for current research about Heart attack treatments.

Clinical Trials for Heart attack

The US based website ClinicalTrials.gov lists information on both federally and privately supported clinical trials using human volunteers.

Some of the clinical trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov for Heart attack include:

• Pre-Hospital Administration of Thrombolytic Therapy With Urgent Culprit Artery Revascularization - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - Retavase 10 U IV Bolus (thrombolytic-clot busting drug)
• Which Therapy for Acute Heart Attacks? (The WEST Study) - This study has been completed (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - tenecteplase,enoxaparin,clopidogrel
• Safety Study of Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) to Treat Acute Myocardial Infarction - This study is no longer recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - Provacel
• Safety and Effectiveness of SeeMore (EVP 1001-1 Injection) for MRI in Heart Patients - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - SeeMore (EVP-1001-1 Injection)
• Safety of TG100-115 for Heart Attack Treated With Angioplasty - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - TG100-115

See full list of 325 Clinical Trials for Heart attack

Prevention of Heart attack

Prevention information for Heart attack has been compiled from various data sources and may be inaccurate or incomplete. None of these methods guarantee prevention of Heart attack.

• Know the symptoms of a heart attack - early treatment can prevent a bad one.
• Quit smoking
• Control weight
• Healthy diet
• Control blood pressure

Read more about prevention of Heart attack

Statistics for Heart attack

• Medical statistics for Heart attack
• Prevalence and incidence statistics for Heart attack
• Death and Mortality statistics for Heart attack
• Society statistics for Heart attack

Medical Guidebooks and Ebooks for Heart attack

• Icon Health Sourcebook for Heart attack

See all guides and ebooks for Heart attack

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Article Excerpts about Heart attack

Wiki article about Heart attack

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Definitions of Heart attack:

Presence of a thrombus in a coronary artery, often causing a myocardial infarction. - (Source - Diseases Database)

A sudden severe instance of abnormal heart function - (Source - WordNet 2.1)