Can A Heart Attack Last For Days?

How long can a heart attack last?

Can it last for days? (see BHF?)

A heart attack can be sudden or last for several days. You may feel signs of a heart attack several hours prior  but the recurring chest pain may indicate a heart attack several days later.

Very early signs of a heart attack (see Conway Medical Ctr?)

Heart attacks usually start slowly with the appearance of certain signs. A few of those signs are the following:

• The discomfort in the chest can appear suddenly, or it stays for some time, then goes away and comes back. It may be similar to chest pressure or chest squeezing.
• Aches in other body parts: patients can feel aches in other body parts besides  the heart, such as., the arm, neck, back, or jaws.
• Other early signs include heart palpitations, anxiety, breathlessness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, or lightheadedness. 

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack is a life-threatening disease in which your heart muscle does not get a sufficient oxygen supply through blood. Any blockage in the heart artery can cause a heart attack. This  is also known as myocardial infarction. Myocardial means heart muscle, and infarction means tissue death due to loss of blood supply. Coronary artery disease is one of the significant causes of a heart attack.

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack

The signs and symptoms of a heart attack include chest pain, chest tightness or pressure, discomfort, or pain in the arms, jaw, back, or throat. A few common symptoms are heartburn or feelings of fullness, stomach ache, sweating, nausea, breathlessness, anxiety, fatigue, or irregular heartbeat. However,  these symptoms are not identical in every individual. 

Differences between men and women

Men and women have one common symptom of heart attack, i.e., chest ache, known as angina. But women have fewer symptoms than men. Men have pain in the left side of the chest or arm, but women may feel pain in the right side of the chest or right arm. Moreover, the most common  symptoms in women are fatigue, dizziness, nausea, upper back ache moving towards the jaws causing jaw pain, abdominal pain, feelings of heartburn, or decreased stamina. These symptoms in women may occur several months before an actual heart attack.

What is a silent heart attack?

Sometimes a person does not feel symptoms of a heart attack and has a sudden heart attack, known as a silent heart attack. It mainly occurs in diabetic patients.

Causes and risk factors of heart attack

As discussed earlier, coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of a heart attack.

The increased cholesterol level builds up inside the walls of coronary arteries and gets blocked. The deposition of fats is known as atheroma. If atheroma detaches from blood vessel walls, a blood clot is made, and this blood clot may block the blood vessel, causing a partial blockage known as NSTEMI or complete blockage known as STEMI. This blockage deprives the heart muscles of blood supplying oxygen.

Other causes of a heart attack include drug abuse, suddenly decreased oxygen supply known as hypoxia, and spontaneous coronary artery dissection.

 These causes are also considered risk factors as they have a high potential of causing a heart attack. Other risk factors include high blood pressure, unhealthy eating consisting of high sugar and fats, increased smoking and alcohol intake, reduced physical activities, obesity, diabetes, family history, and age. 

Differential Diagnosis

Sometimes the patient symptoms  are misdiagnosed with other diseases; for example,  you may feel breathlessness and nausea in anxiety as well. You may feel heartburn or fullness due to digestive problems. That’s why doctors must take proper steps to diagnose a heart attack. Those steps are as follows:

• Electrocardiogram or ECG: First, the patient who may have had a heart attack is tested by an electrocardiogram. It determines the electrical function of the heart. It is crucial to confirm the heart attack and its type.
• Chest X-ray: A chest X-ray also helps in the confirmation of disease. It is also used to diagnose heart attacks in a different manner. For example, the symptoms such as short breath may be due to pulmonary embolism. It also determines the loss that occurs to the lungs due to a heart attack.
• Doctors use echocardiograms and blood tests to determine the damage to the heart.

Treatment for a heart attack

The heart attack treatment depends on the kind of heart attack you have. Usually, the initial treatment includes a cure to restore  blood flow to the damaged heart muscle. For this reason, doctors may initially use drugs to dissolve clots, known as thrombolysis. Other heart attack treatments include:

• Balloon angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention).
• PCI.
• Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
• A combination of drugs and surgery.

Before administration of PCI, an angiogram is performed to examine how well the heart is functioning. After looking at the angiography results, the doctors decide the kind of treatment.

Another kind of treatment may include using fibrinolytic agents if the hospital does not have a PCI facility. After the fibrinolytic agent, angiography is performed, and revascularization is performed to recover the loss.

Other common treatments include:

• Angioplasty - this is the process of widening a blocked blood vessel by inserting a deflated balloon.
• Laser angioplasty includes widening up the blood vessels by a laser tip at the catheter.
• Atherectomy: This process is like angioplasty, but the difference is that the tip of the catheter has a revolving shaver to shed the plaque inside the coronary arteries.
• Bypass surgery: It aims to make new blood vessels to alter the direction of blood flow to heart muscles.
• Cardiomyoplasty: It includes the incorporation of cells from skeletal muscles inserted into the myocardium.
• Heart transplant: The affected heart is replaced by a healthy heart from any donor.
• Minimally invasive heart surgery: This procedure is used to replace standard bypass surgery.
• Radiofrequency ablation: A catheter is used to damage heart muscles by passing through veins.
• Stent insertion: a thin wire is inserted with a balloon at the tip, opening the artery to remove its blockage.
• Transmyocardial revascularization (TMR): A surgery using a laser to create holes or channels into the left ventricle of the heart chamber from outside. These channels improve blood circulation.

Preventing heart problems

You can take lots of measures to prevent a potential heart attack.

Controlling high blood pressure

Patients with high blood pressure should keep it within limits—lifestyle alterations help control high blood pressure.

Controlling cholesterol and triglycerides

Increased cholesterol and triglycerides in the body may block the arteries and have higher chances of developing coronary heart disease, which is one of the main reasons for a heart attack.

Maintaining a healthy BMI

Overweight or obesity causes increased cholesterol and triglycerides in the body, high blood pressure, and diabetes. When an individual falls in a healthy BMI, the risk of other associated diseases is reduced.

Health diet intake

Fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are healthy food items. You must avoid saturated fats and excessive sodium and sugar intake to protect yourself from heart diseases.

Routine exercise

Routine exercises help you strengthen your heart or avoid heart problems by controlling the body's cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and weight.

Reduced alcohol intake and smoking

Excessive use of alcohol and smoking can increase blood pressure. Limited alcohol intake, such as two drinks per day for men and one for women, reduces the chances of a heart attack. Quitting smoking also lowers the heart attack risk.

Avoid stress

Stress and anxiety increase blood pressure and ultimately trigger a heart attack. Calm exercises and meditation can help manage stress.

Control blood sugar level

As diabetes is one of the risk factors for heart attack, blood sugar levels must be controlled to keep your blood vessels, nerves, and heart healthy. 

Take proper sleep

7 to 9 hours of sleep are recommended for an adult. Good sleep habits keep you healthy. Disruption during sleep and and less hours of sleep increase the chances of a heart attack.

When to seek emergency medical help

If you are feeling  tightness, pressure in the chest, and pain in the chest radiating towards the arms, nausea, short breath, and irregular heartbeat, you must seek emergency medical help. In case of a sudden cardiac arrest, if the patient does not get immediate help within minutes, they  will lose their  life. 

Summary

A person may suddenly feel a heart attack or its symptoms may start several days earlier. The heart attack symptoms may vary from person to person. Some common feelings are chest discomfort, pain in other body parts, lightheadedness and nausea. Women have more heart attack symptoms. The several causes of heart attack are high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the body, high blood sugar level, increased alcohol intake and smoking, obesity, age and family history. Heart attack symptoms can be misdiagnosed sometimes. Therefore,  differential diagnosis by electrocardiography, chest X-ray, echocardiography and blood tests are necessary to confirm the heart attack. The heart attack can be prevented by reducing blood pressure, blood sugar level, alcohol intake, smoking, and body weight. Furthermore, increased physical activities and proper sleep helps to strengthen your heart.