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Acute Infarction And Congestive Heart Failure

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Meet Tank 17, a 93-year-old male whose cause of death was an acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure. But what exactly is a myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure? To the non-medical community, an acute myocardial infarction is better known as a heart attack, which is caused by blocked vessels in the heart. According to Dr. Gilberto Cabrera, MD and Jennifer Kornusky, RN, MS, an acute myocardial infarction is due to cardiac ischemia (decreased oxygen and blood flow) which occurs when the arteries are narrowed or weakened.1 Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart’s pumping power is weaker than normal. During heart failure, the heart cannot pump enough blood throughout the whole body, causing the body to become “congested” via fluid build up in the “arms, legs, ankles, feet, lungs, or other organs.”3 Congestive heart failure can occur in either the left or right atria. In order to distinguish between diseases with similar symptoms, healthcare professionals have developed differential diagnoses. A differential diagnosis is the process differentiating between many different possibilities and winnowing them down to one probable illness or disease based on clinical findings. A patient may present with multiple symptoms for an illness that is not yet known, or multiple causes for a symptom that is not yet known. The defining differential diagnosis for acute myocardial infarction is acute chest pain. While assessing the patient, a focused

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