Basic information about heart attack
A heart attack is basically a coronary artery disease (CAD). In Coronary artery disease some material named plaque is built up on the inner walls of coronary articles. As time passes, a section of plaque breaks open which causes blood clot to form on the walls. Now if the blood clot becomes large enough to cut off most or all of the blood flow through the artery then Heart Attack occurs. The heart is a muscular, complex organ which maintains the circulation of blood throughout the body. Heart attack can also be called as acute myocardial infarction in other words. It is basically the death of heart tissue caused by complete blockage on one of the arteries which provide blood to the heart resulting in an interruption in blood supply to heart.
Heart attack is caused when the blood supply to part of heart muscle (myocardium) is reduced or stopped. As the material “plaque” gets deposited on the inner walls, the oxygen rich blood flow reduces. Lack of oxygen further damages the heart muscle. Now if this blockage of blood is not cured as soon as possible then the damaged heart muscle begins to die.
There are some other causes too, like problems with very small, microscopic blood vessels of heart. This is called microvascular disease. This disease is more common in female than in male. Signs and symptoms of heart attack differ, like sometimes there might be not symptoms and one can get sudden heart attack called, Silent Heart Attack. Other symptoms are chest pain or discomfort, feeling breathless, nausea, vomiting, fainting, cold sweat, upper body discomfort in one or both arms etc.
