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Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? While it's definitely wise to call 911 when in doub

by M4v3R 12y ago

Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack? While it's definitely wise to call 911 when in doubt, it's good to have own understanding first so we don't ignore the symptoms AND don't flood 911 with false problems.

quinndupont 12y ago
I found this, but these symptoms seem so general that I feel like I must have had dozens of heart attacks! http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/heartattack/signs.html http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/heartat...
robbiep 12y ago
Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. 'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks, And chest pain that is not typical may also be a heart attack. An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often possible. If the above condition/pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage. Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn't have enough fuel to keep pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival. There is very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications that the patient is at risk of such a problem.
- personjerry 12y ago
  Amazing response. Answered question, provided additional caveats, and even background information! Thank you, this was of interest to me and very helpful.
- coob 12y ago
  Could a smart watch detect a heart attack?
  - Shengbo 12y ago
    If it can accurately monitor your heart beats, then I believe it should be able to identify patterns that signal an impending heart attack. I'm not a doctor tho, so don't take me too seriously. Edit: Apparently I'm wrong, I know nothing about ECG.
    - bennyg 12y ago
      Honestly I'd go ahead and just strikethrough your entire comment. This is terrible advice.
  - robbiep 12y ago
    To take an ECG tracing you need at least 3 points of contact with skin around the body (a hospital ECG has 9 leads attached to the body from which the machine calculates 12 waveforms of electrical activity). A watch based mechanism would not have the capacity to do this and even a 3 lead ECG would not be considered sufficient as it would miss too many changes. I therefore believe that a smart watch would not with any current technology be capable of detecting a heart attack.. Pulse and heart rate are simply not useful (neither sensitive or specific) criteria for detecting MI's For further reading on the physics of an ECG hit up http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einthoven's_triangle http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einthoven's_triangle Edit: my ECG knowledge is a bit rusty- 2 points of contact is enough to produce a single waveform reading...
    - melling 12y ago
      How, about detecting one of the side effects of a heart attack? You can then evaluate if you have a problem by any of the other symptoms. If I'm experiencing chest pain and my smart watches is indicating that my heart rate is irregular, for example, maybe I shouldn't be ignoring this.
      - 12y ago
- snarfy 12y ago
  That's how my dad died. Mom found him on the couch with a bottle of pepto bismol next to him.
  - ohyes 12y ago
    I'm sorry for your loss. My dad thought his heart attack was indigestion too. Ended up with a quintuple bypass and is still with us but it was really close.
- hoggle 12y ago
  "... almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking...These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival." How can we monitor this effectively? There must be a solution that does something after something has registered a problem.
  - JshWright 12y ago
    This isn't as straightforward as you might think... Checking for occlusion of coronary arteries is a reasonably involved process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_catheterization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_catheterization
- MrJagil 12y ago
  One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety, "regularly" suffer form chest pains. This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -> chest pains -> anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack. I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I should ever have a heart attack. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain
  - robbiep 12y ago
    Literally yesterday I treated a patient who has had 4 presentations this year to emergency with chest pain that sounds cardiac enough, except it lasts for several hours sometimes and sometimes she can 'feel it coming on' and heD it off by relaxing. Still, it could always be a heart attack and until a through work up is done to exclude it (acutely, ECG and troponins, as outpatient, stress test), it is worth investigating. In her case the deeper I delved into her personal life the more it became apparent that this was a clear cut case of stress/anxiety related pain- that was having physical manifestations. for her, we discussed exactly what you are describing: that anxiety leads to the pain, which then leads to fear about it being a heart attack, which worsens it etc. we went through the work up we had planned and after her second troponin was negative we sent her home to have an outpatient stress test to see if she may have some partial blockages. If that is clear, we as medical personnel feel comfortable knowing that her episodes are non-cardiac in nature- and referral to psychologist for CBT (which she had previously undertaken to good effect) was recommended. I think she will do well, she appears willing to seek help. I hope you are also seeking help for your anxiety, and that you have had at least one good work up for your chest pain to exclude a cardiac cause.
    - srcmap 12y ago
      Amazon has some home ECG monitor device. Do you recommend their use? I execise regularly. If those device are effective, I would love to use them weekly or monthly on myself and collect the data long term for me and possibly my doctor.
      - 12y ago
- werid 12y ago
  > The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. This is mostly for men, right? I've read previously that the symptoms for women are quite different.
  - JshWright 12y ago
    It's common for women to have pain in the center of their back (basically directly 'behind' their heart). Nausea is another reasonably common symptom for both men and women. There's no guarantee you'll have any pain at all... Honestly, someone who is diaphoretic and nauseated is going to get an ECG, even if they don't have any complaint of chest pain.
  - fdiv_bug 12y ago
    I'm glad you brought up the point about women, because I'm actually writing this from my mother's hospital room where she's been for about a month after a heart attack of her own. Her experience was very, very different from what we're taught to expect from a heart attack as men. She'd been nauseous and tired, with some chest tightness and general malaise, for a period of about 4 days before my stepdad told her to go to urgent care, where they put her on an ambulance to the ER, where they admitted her to the cardiac ward. She had been having a heart attack for most of that four-day span and wrote her symptoms off as "just part of being a 66-year-old woman." The length of the event caused her to go into shock, and she's had all sorts of problems falling out from that. She's stable now, at least, and is recovering well, but she should've sought medical care much, much sooner. Since this happened, I've spoken with dozens of men and women I know about heart attack symptoms, and so far only a couple of people knew how different the presentation was across genders. If you have any late(ish)-aged women in your life about whom you care, make sure they know what a heart attack might feel like for them. My mom got lucky and has had a great team of doctors working on her recovery, but you can't count on luck the way you can count on knowledge.
- rswail 12y ago
  As someone who had a heart attack exactly a month ago (100% block on LCx) I can say that I had pain that started in the arm, went up across my shoulder blades and pain in my jaw. Cold sweats as well. It happened over a period of about 15-20 minutes. Luckily I recognized the signs and was very near a hospital ED. I wasn't in incredible pain, but I knew what was happening. I was actually driving and made the decision to get to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance, as the time would have been longer. Got to ED, straight to a bed, then ECG and bloods taken, two hours later angiogram/plasty and now have a stent in the Circumflex artery and working on the other problems. Fortunately it looks like the damage has been fairly minimal. Echo cardiogram shows mostly "normal", but getting a thallium test next week. I'm T2 diabetic and had let my sugars get out of control. Don't do that. Now I'm doing the exercise and diet changes that I should have done a long time ago.
  - mkagenius 12y ago
    > I'm T2 diabetic and had let my sugars get out of control. What were your readings at the time, if you don't mind?
- molsongolden 12y ago
  Can you speak to women having atypical presentations? I did some reading after my mother had a MI and it seems fairly common for women to have longer, sustained nausea and discomfort vs. the classic male symptoms.
- nostromoa 12y ago
  I don't display heart attack symptoms well perhaps due to a high tolerance for pain. That said symptoms include some sort of pain, chest (elephant sitting on chest), jaw, in my case a feeling like a baseball pressing into the hollow of my left shoulder. When it started my very first thought was "I am having a heart attack." Which is to say when you have a heart attack its distinct enough from anything else you ever felt on your body you probably recognize it as a heart attack. So don't worry, you will know when you have a heart attack as long as you don't slide into immediate denial. Another sign of a heart attack pain is the pain gets worse and one squirms to try to get away from it (like a leg cramp setting in type squirm)so as it gets worse you will definitely ask to be taken to a hospital unless you are utterly insane. For me it wasn't what I connote as "pain" which has a sense of sharpness to it, it was more like a pressure in an area that was very uncomfortable. By the way your heart doesn't feel pain itself no nerves for that, which is why there are all these other spots that get reported as uncomfortable or painful because the body "finds someplace else" to express the problem. The other sign is the shortness of breath and gasping...this must be simply because your body is responding to the heart not getting oxygen past the artery blockage (downstream)and is trying to get more oxygen. Note also when you get that second stent they are blocking an artery to insert it so you get a chance to experience the heart attack feeling as per shortness of breath if you missed it the first time.
- nostromoa 12y ago
  THe only sure fire way to check your heart is to have them pump some fluid in that allows them to see your heart and arteries pumping real time on a screen. A catheter operation in the cath lab. This can be expensive though I have heard there is a good deal in CHicago for a few hundred dollars. The rest, i.e., ECG is not a guarantee of diagnosis, I had several before my infarction as routine check ups and none revealed a 90 percent clogged LAD (Widow maker) and similarly clogged RCA and 50 percent clogged circumflex (which they didn't stent yet because stent cut off line is %70). Perhaps a stress test with the ECG is better. But taking a live camera look is the way to go if you really want to know, you can go in in the morning and be out by the afternoon if all goes well.
  - noisy_boy 12y ago
    This procedure is called Angiography and I had this done for my dad after he was suffering with lack of stamina and heavy breathing even with mild exertion. The doctors found 5 blockages which wasn't surprising since he used to be a smoker and a foodie. Multiple stents were put (couple of blockages were so bad that the couple of wires used to make way for the stent bent and couldn't penetrate but thankfully they were not in the bigger arteries). I've resolved to undergo Angiography, symptoms or not, once I turn forty. Angiography is not cheap but it is way more cheaper considering the costs of stents (specifically the ones that dissolve are quite expensive). A day of preparation and an hour of discomfort is nothing at all considering the benefits.
    - krrrh 12y ago
      I had no idea angiography could be an elective procedure with no symptoms present. Thanks for sharing, something to think about.
      - DEinspanjer 12y ago
        I agree, something to think about, but the very first hit on Google for "elective angiography" was an article discussing whether it is over-used due to the dangers including significant radiation. :/ Where are my darn nano-mites!?
- CmonDev 12y ago
  What can you say about rapid heartbeat increase but no shortness of breath after walking up stairs?
RafiqM 12y ago
Here's the thing - people experiencing a heart attack can have any combination, or none of the symptoms. So here's some of the symptoms, bearing in mind that they may or may not apply to any given situation. Chest Pain The first and most obvious sign is chest pain. It may be radiating down your left side (jaw/arm). It is generally described as a crushing pain. This symptom is less likely to occur for women or people with diabetes. If the chest pain is not relieved by resting (i.e. sitting down), it points towards a heart attack. Shortness of Breath As a body attempts to bring more oxygen into the body faster (because your heart isnt perfusing efficiently anymore), breathing will become faster and more shallow. Pulse - Rapid, Weak You should take your pulse a few times a year to get a baseline of what it's normally like. During a heart attack, it can become faster and weaker. However, this is relative - your pulse may normally be weak. This is why it is important to have a baseline. Nausea, Dizzyness, Sweating, Weakness These physical symptoms by themselves are usually not a concern (they happen with many sorts of illness really) but in combination with the above can be a warning sign. In any discussion about heart attacks, it's important for you to understand the risk factors: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/basics/risk-factors/con-20019520 http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/b... If you're high risk and are suffering from the above symptoms, its always advisable to err on the side of caution and call the emergency services. In fact, if you're at all worried, just call. There are some things you can do to help yourself during a heart attack: 1) Call emergency services. 2) Make sure emergency services can access you, especially if you're on your own. Unlock door, etc. 3) Half sitting position. Place your back up against a wall and sit with your knees raised. 4) Take an aspirin. This will thin your blood and relieve pressure on your heart. 5) Try control your breathing. 6) Try not to worry (yeah, I know, this is a hard one). Source: EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with voluntary ambulance services.
- Akathos 12y ago
  It's kind of ironic that these are the same symptoms as stress related panic attacks.
- rswail 12y ago
  http://www.heartattackfacts.org.au/warning-signs/ http://www.heartattackfacts.org.au/warning-signs/ Strangely enough I'd just seen the poster that had all this on it the week before my attack when I was at the GP for a general checkup after a cold.
rottyguy 12y ago
Thanks for your response. I was always curious about something. My father inlaw was admitted a few years ago for bypass surgery. Upon inspection, they found (I'm doing this from memory so apologies if I get some of the numbers wrong) that 4 of his arteries were partially blocked, some up to 85%. In fact, his body produced a natural bypass on it's own because one artery was so clogged up (it literally created new connections to bypass the clog albeit much smaller then the original)! My question is why can't we detect this high level of blockage much earlier (as in with a physical). Are the tests too intrusive or too expensive to recommend that the test(s) be performed periodically (eg maybe every 5 years after 30 or 40?) Thanks!
- robbiep 12y ago
  Blockages of up to 90%, whilst considered 'critical', typically cause little in the way of symptoms. The gold standard for detecting vessel blockage is angiogram- puncture the femoral or radial artery, feed a catheter to the top of the aorta and squirt some dye and then watch it on X-ray. This has risks however- risks of rupturing artery walls, causing bleeding and bruising, and can be expensive. So it is not routinely done: in fact it is only indicated if a patient presents with a MI (gold standard is to have the patient in angio lab within 90 minutes of onset of symptoms, which is great because if they are they can generally reverse the blockages with stenting before long term damage occurs), or if a patient has a positive stress test. CT angiograms are becoming more common but still not commonly used due to decreased sensitivity. If a patient is believed to have risk factors for artery disease then they may be given a exercise stress test- hook up to an ECG, get on a treadmill and if there are changes consistent with vessel ISCHAEMIA (as opposed to infarct), then an angiogram will usually be scheduled. For patients too unwell for a exercise stress test nuclear medicine stress tests can be performed. And finally in patients who have blockages in more than 3 arteries, the gold standard is still (for the time being) coronary artery bypass grafting. I guess to summarise, the reason we can't detect it earlier is because generally we require invasive means to do so and invasive tests carry risk to the patient that are hard to justify for screening purposes. Perhaps in the future CT angio may be made more readily available, the scanners keep getting better and better and resolution increases all the time however you always want to minimise a persons radiation dose as for every 3-400 people scanned you can cause one instance of cancer... Something you must always be mindful of particularly in children
decaysa 12y ago
For me this is a real issue. I have genetic high cholestrol (I'm on 80 mg lipitor) and I suffer from gastric reflux and excessive gas. I've been to ER twice when I thought I was having a heart attack but it was just bad gas/heartburn :( Now I'm sure to dismiss the real attack...
- CmonDev 12y ago
  Are you overweight? Does your gastric reflux / gas have any associated episodic shortness of breath? Just trying to make parallels with myself.
  - decaysa 12y ago
    No I'm not overweight would be suicide for me ;/. No smoking or anything like that. I am a bit unfit though. I've never had shortness of breath while not active. That's also what the doctor told me to look out for. It's still scary and confusing though.
bprieto 12y ago
I don't have medical experience, but I had a heart attack a year ago. This is what I felt: - Feeling diffusely sick, no specific pain, but a feeling that something was wrong. - Oppression in the chest. - Mild pain in the left arm - Cold sweat. I tried to drink some water, open a window to have fresh air, sit and relax, but after a couple of minutes nothing improved. I was at the office (alone) so I googled the symptoms of a heart attack and next thing I was calling 112 (Spain's equivalent to 911). It was a mild heart attack, I got a procedure in the ambulance that stopped the attack, and a barely had heart damage. I had a triple bypass surgery a week after the attack, because the three main arteries were clogged. So it went well, because with those arteries I could have had a more serious attack at any moment. My advice would be, if you are not feeling right and you never before had those symptoms, call 911 (or whatever the number is in your country). The people that picks up the phone are trained to assess the calls, and anyway it's better to raise a false alarm than to die.

by M4v3R 12y ago

quinndupont 12y ago

I found this, but these symptoms seem so general that I feel like I must have had dozens of heart attacks! http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/heartattack/signs.html http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/heartat...

robbiep 12y ago

Doctor here. The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. 'Typical' signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having 'silent' heart attacks, And chest pain that is not typical may also be a heart attack. An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often possible. If the above condition/pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage. Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn't have enough fuel to keep pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival. There is very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications that the patient is at risk of such a problem.

personjerry 12y ago
Amazing response. Answered question, provided additional caveats, and even background information! Thank you, this was of interest to me and very helpful.
coob 12y ago
Could a smart watch detect a heart attack?
- Shengbo 12y ago
  If it can accurately monitor your heart beats, then I believe it should be able to identify patterns that signal an impending heart attack. I'm not a doctor tho, so don't take me too seriously. Edit: Apparently I'm wrong, I know nothing about ECG.
  - bennyg 12y ago
    Honestly I'd go ahead and just strikethrough your entire comment. This is terrible advice.
- robbiep 12y ago
  To take an ECG tracing you need at least 3 points of contact with skin around the body (a hospital ECG has 9 leads attached to the body from which the machine calculates 12 waveforms of electrical activity). A watch based mechanism would not have the capacity to do this and even a 3 lead ECG would not be considered sufficient as it would miss too many changes. I therefore believe that a smart watch would not with any current technology be capable of detecting a heart attack.. Pulse and heart rate are simply not useful (neither sensitive or specific) criteria for detecting MI's For further reading on the physics of an ECG hit up http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einthoven's_triangle http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einthoven's_triangle Edit: my ECG knowledge is a bit rusty- 2 points of contact is enough to produce a single waveform reading...
  - melling 12y ago
    How, about detecting one of the side effects of a heart attack? You can then evaluate if you have a problem by any of the other symptoms. If I'm experiencing chest pain and my smart watches is indicating that my heart rate is irregular, for example, maybe I shouldn't be ignoring this.
    - 12y ago
snarfy 12y ago
That's how my dad died. Mom found him on the couch with a bottle of pepto bismol next to him.
- ohyes 12y ago
  I'm sorry for your loss. My dad thought his heart attack was indigestion too. Ended up with a quintuple bypass and is still with us but it was really close.
hoggle 12y ago
"... almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking...These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival." How can we monitor this effectively? There must be a solution that does something after something has registered a problem.
- JshWright 12y ago
  This isn't as straightforward as you might think... Checking for occlusion of coronary arteries is a reasonably involved process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_catheterization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_catheterization
MrJagil 12y ago
One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety, "regularly" suffer form chest pains. This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -> chest pains -> anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack. I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I should ever have a heart attack. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain
- robbiep 12y ago
  Literally yesterday I treated a patient who has had 4 presentations this year to emergency with chest pain that sounds cardiac enough, except it lasts for several hours sometimes and sometimes she can 'feel it coming on' and heD it off by relaxing. Still, it could always be a heart attack and until a through work up is done to exclude it (acutely, ECG and troponins, as outpatient, stress test), it is worth investigating. In her case the deeper I delved into her personal life the more it became apparent that this was a clear cut case of stress/anxiety related pain- that was having physical manifestations. for her, we discussed exactly what you are describing: that anxiety leads to the pain, which then leads to fear about it being a heart attack, which worsens it etc. we went through the work up we had planned and after her second troponin was negative we sent her home to have an outpatient stress test to see if she may have some partial blockages. If that is clear, we as medical personnel feel comfortable knowing that her episodes are non-cardiac in nature- and referral to psychologist for CBT (which she had previously undertaken to good effect) was recommended. I think she will do well, she appears willing to seek help. I hope you are also seeking help for your anxiety, and that you have had at least one good work up for your chest pain to exclude a cardiac cause.
  - srcmap 12y ago
    Amazon has some home ECG monitor device. Do you recommend their use? I execise regularly. If those device are effective, I would love to use them weekly or monthly on myself and collect the data long term for me and possibly my doctor.
    - 12y ago
werid 12y ago
> The 'typical' signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness. This is mostly for men, right? I've read previously that the symptoms for women are quite different.
- JshWright 12y ago
  It's common for women to have pain in the center of their back (basically directly 'behind' their heart). Nausea is another reasonably common symptom for both men and women. There's no guarantee you'll have any pain at all... Honestly, someone who is diaphoretic and nauseated is going to get an ECG, even if they don't have any complaint of chest pain.
- fdiv_bug 12y ago
  I'm glad you brought up the point about women, because I'm actually writing this from my mother's hospital room where she's been for about a month after a heart attack of her own. Her experience was very, very different from what we're taught to expect from a heart attack as men. She'd been nauseous and tired, with some chest tightness and general malaise, for a period of about 4 days before my stepdad told her to go to urgent care, where they put her on an ambulance to the ER, where they admitted her to the cardiac ward. She had been having a heart attack for most of that four-day span and wrote her symptoms off as "just part of being a 66-year-old woman." The length of the event caused her to go into shock, and she's had all sorts of problems falling out from that. She's stable now, at least, and is recovering well, but she should've sought medical care much, much sooner. Since this happened, I've spoken with dozens of men and women I know about heart attack symptoms, and so far only a couple of people knew how different the presentation was across genders. If you have any late(ish)-aged women in your life about whom you care, make sure they know what a heart attack might feel like for them. My mom got lucky and has had a great team of doctors working on her recovery, but you can't count on luck the way you can count on knowledge.
rswail 12y ago
As someone who had a heart attack exactly a month ago (100% block on LCx) I can say that I had pain that started in the arm, went up across my shoulder blades and pain in my jaw. Cold sweats as well. It happened over a period of about 15-20 minutes. Luckily I recognized the signs and was very near a hospital ED. I wasn't in incredible pain, but I knew what was happening. I was actually driving and made the decision to get to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance, as the time would have been longer. Got to ED, straight to a bed, then ECG and bloods taken, two hours later angiogram/plasty and now have a stent in the Circumflex artery and working on the other problems. Fortunately it looks like the damage has been fairly minimal. Echo cardiogram shows mostly "normal", but getting a thallium test next week. I'm T2 diabetic and had let my sugars get out of control. Don't do that. Now I'm doing the exercise and diet changes that I should have done a long time ago.
- mkagenius 12y ago
  > I'm T2 diabetic and had let my sugars get out of control. What were your readings at the time, if you don't mind?
molsongolden 12y ago
Can you speak to women having atypical presentations? I did some reading after my mother had a MI and it seems fairly common for women to have longer, sustained nausea and discomfort vs. the classic male symptoms.
nostromoa 12y ago
I don't display heart attack symptoms well perhaps due to a high tolerance for pain. That said symptoms include some sort of pain, chest (elephant sitting on chest), jaw, in my case a feeling like a baseball pressing into the hollow of my left shoulder. When it started my very first thought was "I am having a heart attack." Which is to say when you have a heart attack its distinct enough from anything else you ever felt on your body you probably recognize it as a heart attack. So don't worry, you will know when you have a heart attack as long as you don't slide into immediate denial. Another sign of a heart attack pain is the pain gets worse and one squirms to try to get away from it (like a leg cramp setting in type squirm)so as it gets worse you will definitely ask to be taken to a hospital unless you are utterly insane. For me it wasn't what I connote as "pain" which has a sense of sharpness to it, it was more like a pressure in an area that was very uncomfortable. By the way your heart doesn't feel pain itself no nerves for that, which is why there are all these other spots that get reported as uncomfortable or painful because the body "finds someplace else" to express the problem. The other sign is the shortness of breath and gasping...this must be simply because your body is responding to the heart not getting oxygen past the artery blockage (downstream)and is trying to get more oxygen. Note also when you get that second stent they are blocking an artery to insert it so you get a chance to experience the heart attack feeling as per shortness of breath if you missed it the first time.
nostromoa 12y ago
THe only sure fire way to check your heart is to have them pump some fluid in that allows them to see your heart and arteries pumping real time on a screen. A catheter operation in the cath lab. This can be expensive though I have heard there is a good deal in CHicago for a few hundred dollars. The rest, i.e., ECG is not a guarantee of diagnosis, I had several before my infarction as routine check ups and none revealed a 90 percent clogged LAD (Widow maker) and similarly clogged RCA and 50 percent clogged circumflex (which they didn't stent yet because stent cut off line is %70). Perhaps a stress test with the ECG is better. But taking a live camera look is the way to go if you really want to know, you can go in in the morning and be out by the afternoon if all goes well.
- noisy_boy 12y ago
  This procedure is called Angiography and I had this done for my dad after he was suffering with lack of stamina and heavy breathing even with mild exertion. The doctors found 5 blockages which wasn't surprising since he used to be a smoker and a foodie. Multiple stents were put (couple of blockages were so bad that the couple of wires used to make way for the stent bent and couldn't penetrate but thankfully they were not in the bigger arteries). I've resolved to undergo Angiography, symptoms or not, once I turn forty. Angiography is not cheap but it is way more cheaper considering the costs of stents (specifically the ones that dissolve are quite expensive). A day of preparation and an hour of discomfort is nothing at all considering the benefits.
  - krrrh 12y ago
    I had no idea angiography could be an elective procedure with no symptoms present. Thanks for sharing, something to think about.
    - DEinspanjer 12y ago
      I agree, something to think about, but the very first hit on Google for "elective angiography" was an article discussing whether it is over-used due to the dangers including significant radiation. :/ Where are my darn nano-mites!?
CmonDev 12y ago
What can you say about rapid heartbeat increase but no shortness of breath after walking up stairs?

RafiqM 12y ago

Here's the thing - people experiencing a heart attack can have any combination, or none of the symptoms. So here's some of the symptoms, bearing in mind that they may or may not apply to any given situation. Chest Pain The first and most obvious sign is chest pain. It may be radiating down your left side (jaw/arm). It is generally described as a crushing pain. This symptom is less likely to occur for women or people with diabetes. If the chest pain is not relieved by resting (i.e. sitting down), it points towards a heart attack. Shortness of Breath As a body attempts to bring more oxygen into the body faster (because your heart isnt perfusing efficiently anymore), breathing will become faster and more shallow. Pulse - Rapid, Weak You should take your pulse a few times a year to get a baseline of what it's normally like. During a heart attack, it can become faster and weaker. However, this is relative - your pulse may normally be weak. This is why it is important to have a baseline. Nausea, Dizzyness, Sweating, Weakness These physical symptoms by themselves are usually not a concern (they happen with many sorts of illness really) but in combination with the above can be a warning sign. In any discussion about heart attacks, it's important for you to understand the risk factors: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/basics/risk-factors/con-20019520 http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-attack/b... If you're high risk and are suffering from the above symptoms, its always advisable to err on the side of caution and call the emergency services. In fact, if you're at all worried, just call. There are some things you can do to help yourself during a heart attack: 1) Call emergency services. 2) Make sure emergency services can access you, especially if you're on your own. Unlock door, etc. 3) Half sitting position. Place your back up against a wall and sit with your knees raised. 4) Take an aspirin. This will thin your blood and relieve pressure on your heart. 5) Try control your breathing. 6) Try not to worry (yeah, I know, this is a hard one). Source: EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with voluntary ambulance services.

Akathos 12y ago
It's kind of ironic that these are the same symptoms as stress related panic attacks.
rswail 12y ago
http://www.heartattackfacts.org.au/warning-signs/ http://www.heartattackfacts.org.au/warning-signs/ Strangely enough I'd just seen the poster that had all this on it the week before my attack when I was at the GP for a general checkup after a cold.

rottyguy 12y ago

Thanks for your response. I was always curious about something. My father inlaw was admitted a few years ago for bypass surgery. Upon inspection, they found (I'm doing this from memory so apologies if I get some of the numbers wrong) that 4 of his arteries were partially blocked, some up to 85%. In fact, his body produced a natural bypass on it's own because one artery was so clogged up (it literally created new connections to bypass the clog albeit much smaller then the original)! My question is why can't we detect this high level of blockage much earlier (as in with a physical). Are the tests too intrusive or too expensive to recommend that the test(s) be performed periodically (eg maybe every 5 years after 30 or 40?) Thanks!

robbiep 12y ago
Blockages of up to 90%, whilst considered 'critical', typically cause little in the way of symptoms. The gold standard for detecting vessel blockage is angiogram- puncture the femoral or radial artery, feed a catheter to the top of the aorta and squirt some dye and then watch it on X-ray. This has risks however- risks of rupturing artery walls, causing bleeding and bruising, and can be expensive. So it is not routinely done: in fact it is only indicated if a patient presents with a MI (gold standard is to have the patient in angio lab within 90 minutes of onset of symptoms, which is great because if they are they can generally reverse the blockages with stenting before long term damage occurs), or if a patient has a positive stress test. CT angiograms are becoming more common but still not commonly used due to decreased sensitivity. If a patient is believed to have risk factors for artery disease then they may be given a exercise stress test- hook up to an ECG, get on a treadmill and if there are changes consistent with vessel ISCHAEMIA (as opposed to infarct), then an angiogram will usually be scheduled. For patients too unwell for a exercise stress test nuclear medicine stress tests can be performed. And finally in patients who have blockages in more than 3 arteries, the gold standard is still (for the time being) coronary artery bypass grafting. I guess to summarise, the reason we can't detect it earlier is because generally we require invasive means to do so and invasive tests carry risk to the patient that are hard to justify for screening purposes. Perhaps in the future CT angio may be made more readily available, the scanners keep getting better and better and resolution increases all the time however you always want to minimise a persons radiation dose as for every 3-400 people scanned you can cause one instance of cancer... Something you must always be mindful of particularly in children

decaysa 12y ago

For me this is a real issue. I have genetic high cholestrol (I'm on 80 mg lipitor) and I suffer from gastric reflux and excessive gas. I've been to ER twice when I thought I was having a heart attack but it was just bad gas/heartburn :( Now I'm sure to dismiss the real attack...

CmonDev 12y ago
Are you overweight? Does your gastric reflux / gas have any associated episodic shortness of breath? Just trying to make parallels with myself.
- decaysa 12y ago
  No I'm not overweight would be suicide for me ;/. No smoking or anything like that. I am a bit unfit though. I've never had shortness of breath while not active. That's also what the doctor told me to look out for. It's still scary and confusing though.

bprieto 12y ago

I don't have medical experience, but I had a heart attack a year ago. This is what I felt: - Feeling diffusely sick, no specific pain, but a feeling that something was wrong. - Oppression in the chest. - Mild pain in the left arm - Cold sweat. I tried to drink some water, open a window to have fresh air, sit and relax, but after a couple of minutes nothing improved. I was at the office (alone) so I googled the symptoms of a heart attack and next thing I was calling 112 (Spain's equivalent to 911). It was a mild heart attack, I got a procedure in the ambulance that stopped the attack, and a barely had heart damage. I had a triple bypass surgery a week after the attack, because the three main arteries were clogged. So it went well, because with those arteries I could have had a more serious attack at any moment. My advice would be, if you are not feeling right and you never before had those symptoms, call 911 (or whatever the number is in your country). The people that picks up the phone are trained to assess the calls, and anyway it's better to raise a false alarm than to die.