Myocardial Infarction

In December of 1992, my paternal grandfather suffered a heart attack. He had been hauling several 50 lb. sacks of corn up into the deer feeder on his property by himself. He got into his truck, turned the ignition, put it into drive and before he could take his foot off the brake, he was dead. He was 68 years old. I was thirteen and that seemed so old. I remember that prior to the event there were many conversations within my family about the condition of my grandfather’s heart and cardiovascular system and how he needed to make lifestyle changes. I remember him taking nitroglycerine pills. I remember him coming to Dallas to go to an appointment so that they could perform tests with names like “stress EKG.” I

Another word used to describe a heart attack is myocardial infarction, cardiac infarction and coronary thrombosis. A heart attack is the death of a part of the heart caused by the loss of blood supply. The blood supply is usually gone due to a coronary artery being blocked by a blood clot. When a part of a heart artery breaks a blood clot forms around the piece. This blood clot can block the blood flow through the heart muscle. When the heart muscle needs oxygen it is called ischemia. When damage of a part of the heart muscle happens it’s called a heart attack. During a heart attack damage occurs depending on the size of the area blocked by the blood clot as well as the time between the actual heart attack and the treatment. Even though the heart may be hurt, the rest of the organs work with no problems. However, it will not pump as much blood as it used to in order to supply the same amount of blood to all of the parts of the body.

Coronary artery disease remains number one killer of the western civilization despite 40 years of aggressive drug and surgical interventions (Esselstyn). Usually, pharmaceutical drugs, such as statin, are given to try to slow the progression, but may provide uncomfortable side effects. In fact, the majority of patients discontinue statins within 1 year of treatment initiation (Maningat). Furthermore, surgery is performed to circumvent clogged arteries and literally bypass the symptoms. In the last year, 500,000 coronary bypass procedures were performed (Swaminathan et al). However, these surgeries can have significant risks, including the potential to cause further heart damage, stroke, and brain dysfunction. Thus, it is evident that these way of treatments may not be enough on its own, and that getting to the

A heart attack occurs when the oxygenated blood that typically flows to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off. This happens because the coronary arteries that supply the heart with blood slowly become narrow from built up plaque. If a piece of plaque breaks off, a blood clot typically forms around the plaque and the clot can block the blood flow through the heart. When blood flow is blocked, the muscles of the heart becomes starved for oxygen and nutrients, this is known as ischemia. Because the body needs oxygen to carry out vital life processes, ischemia can cause damage or death to parts of the heart muscles. When damage occurs it is called a heart attack or myocardial infarction (American Heart

One of the complications of an acute MI is Left Ventricular Aneurysm (LVA) which is a localized area of myocardium with abnormal outward bulging and deformation during systole and diastole. The epidemiology occurs in 10-30% of patients after an acute MI (American Heart Association 2015). The risk factors include total occlusion of the LAD artery, females and an anterior MI. To prevent this, early revascularization is needed. The LVAs usually range from 1-8 cm.

A heart attack occurs when an artery that supplies blood to the heart becomes blocked. The loss of oxygen and nutrients damage the heart's muscle tissue, causing the remaining healthy tissue to pump even harder to keep up.

Nevertheless, there is an understandable and noticeable link between circulatory related diseases and lifestyle diseases, such as Coronary Heart Disease. Coronary heart disease can occur when fatty acids, such as cholesterol in an inadequate diet, build up in the walls of the coronary artery. These fatty deposits collect minerals and harden to become a plaque. Eventually, this plaque grows and can swells up, forming an aneurism. In some cases, this aneurism may burst leading to instant death. As it continues to grow and swell up, it finally blocks the artery completely and forms blood clots. This is known as coronary thrombosis. A myocardial infarction, or in other words as heart attack, occurs when no oxygen is able to reach the coronary artery and thus it is unable to fulfil its role in providing the heart muscle with a sufficient supply of blood. Heart attacks are very common in the society nowadays, especially occurring in smokers or obesity related diseases (Millar, June 2014)

Myocardial Infarction (MI) is more commonly referred as the heart attack. This typically occurs due to an interruption, albeit partial to some part of the heart, which causes the cells in the heart to die and as a result sends

In the evaluation of patients with chest pain, the preliminary ECG is a more clear-cut tool for early risk stratification with more recent recommendations indicating that ECG should be performed as early as possible, within 10 minutes of ED admittance. Early indicators associated with MI or ischemic complication such as ST segment elevation or depression allows rapid treatment aligning with the indicated complication. While the ECG may reveal significant indicators in certain situations, in other circumstances findings may be limited due to low diagnostic sensitivity

Heart muscle died as a results of myocardial infarction (MI) which the main coronary arteries was blocked, and large part of the heart muscle was affected due to cellular death from lack of blood flow and oxygen. Cell death is one of the most crucial events in the evolution of MI. A heart attack or MI is usually caused by a blood clot (thrombosis) that forms inside a coronary artery, or one of its branches, which suddenly blocks and stops the blood flowing to a part of the heart muscle. When the blood flow is interrupted necrosis occurs ( McCance & Huether, 2014).

In the United States, approximately six million people are living with some degree and type of heart failure; it is also the number one cause of death in the United States (CDC, 2016). The following research paper details the medical-surgical treatment and nursing care of patients with heart failure, and includes information specific to left-sided heart failure. Left-sided or left ventricular heart failure (LSHF) is most often referred to as congestive heart failure (CHF) in the clinical setting. LSHF results in inadequate left ventricular, cardiac output and consequently inadequate, systemic tissue perfusion. The most common contributing factors initiating LSHF are atherosclerosis, hypertension, coronary artery disease, angina,

Cardiac output may be diminished transiently by acute SVC obstruction, but within a few hours, blood return is reestablished by increased venous pressure and collaterals. Hemodynamic compromise, if present, more often results from mass effect on the heart than from SVC compression [ 2] .

     Heart attack occurs when a blood clot suddenly and completely blocks a diseased coronary artery, resulting in the death of the heart muscle cells supplied by that artery. Coronary and Coronary Thrombosis 2 are terms that can refer to a heart attack. Another term, Acute Myocardial Infarction 2, means death of heart muscle due to an inadequate blood supply.

We present an 85 year old non-diabetic and non-hypertensive patient admitted with acute inferior wall myocardial infarction. After successful coronary angioplasty patient had no reflow phenomenon which was treated with adenosine, nikorandil and nitroglycerine with TIMI 3 flow achieved at the end. This case report revisits one of the dreaded complications in cath-lab and its successful management

A routine follow up echocardiogram for an LVAD patient can help find complications that may arise from this heart failure therapy. LVAD dysfunction can originate from the inflow cannula. The misalignment and increase pump flow can cause the walls of the LV to be sucked down towards the cannula resulting in obstruction of inlet flow. We will see this first from the parasternal long axis view. When applying Doppler to the inflow cannula, the characteristic of the flow pattern can represent obstruction or thrombus within the cannula. Flow pattern showing slow, turbulent and/or lack of flow indicates some type of obstruction.