FEBRUARY 2010
WHAT IS HEART ATTACK?
The heart is a muscle like any other in the body. It needs blood flow to supply oxygen to allow it to do work. When there isn't enough oxygen, the muscle starts to suffer, and when there is no oxygen, the muscle starts to die.
Heart muscle gets its blood supply from arteries that start in the aorta and run on the surface of the heart, known as the coronary arteries. The right coronary artery supplies the right ventricle of the heart and the inferior (lower) portion of the left ventricle. The left anterior descending coronary artery supplies the majority of the left ventricle, while the circumflex artery supplies the back of the left ventricle.
Heart Attack Causes
Over time, cholesterol buildup can occur in these blood vessels in the form of plaque. This narrows the artery and can restrict the amount of blood that can flow through it. If the artery becomes too narrow, it cannot supply enough blood to the heart muscle when it becomes stressed. Just like arm muscles that begin to hurt if you lift too much, or legs that ache when you run too fast; the heart muscle will ache if it doesn't get adequate blood supply. This ache is called angina.
If the plaque ruptures, a small blood clot can form within the blood vessel and acutely block the blood flow. When that part of the heart loses its blood supply completely, the muscle dies. This is called a heart attack, or an MI - a myocardial infarction (myo=muscle +cardial=heart; infarction=death due to lack of oxygen).
Reference:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/heart_attack/article_em.htm
Prevalence:
- 42% of women who have heart attacks die within 1 year, compared to 24% of men.
- Under age 50, women’s heart attacks are twice as likely as men’s to be fatal.
- 267,000 women die each year from heart attacks, which kill six times as many women as breast cancer.
At-Risk:
- 71% of women experience early warning signs of heart attack with sudden onset of extreme weakness that feels like the flu - often with no chest pain at all.
- Women with diabetes have more than double the risk of heart attack than non- diabetic women. Diabetes doubles the risk of a second heart attack in women but not in men. Diabetes affects many more women than men after the age of 45.
- 38% of women and 25% of men will die within one year of a first recognized heart attack.
- 46% of women and 22% of men heart attack survivors will be disabled with heart failure within six years.
Reference:
http://www.womensheart.org/content/HeartDisease/heart_disease_facts.asp