Chest Pain- Must Know Facts!!
Chest Pain- Must Know Facts!!
Dr. Sanoop Kumar
Sherin Sabu
(M.B.B.S., M.D., Gen Med Resident GMKMCH Salem)
Another man 58-year-old gentle man, with no much addictions, while he was painting our flat, collapsed following sweating. My friend and me rushed, and found he was in cardiac arrest. We started him on CPR and shifted him to nearest private hospital, there he was given electric shock ( DC- Shock) to restart his heart pump, he was revived and then shifted to medical college. Angiogram and angioplasty was done for his heart vessels which had 3 blocks ( triple vessel disease). Later the painter and his family came to us with tears of happiness and joy.
Same stories many of us
would have had heard in our friend circle or family. Some would have been lucky
to be saved while others would have succumbed to death.
What is chest
pain?
Chest pain, like any
other pain, is localized or diffuse pain over your chest
What is the cause
for chest pain?
In simple terms,
·
Can be
an heart attack ( MI)
·
Can be
muscular pain
·
Can be
due to some lung diseases like infection, pus, cancers etc
·
Or can
be even due to some gas trouble or abdominal diseases
What are the
typical characteristics of a pain for heart attack?
·
Usually
90% cases pain due to heart attack is left sided or central.
·
Some
times it can be right sided or abdominal pain can also be due to an heart
attack.
·
Usually
they are accompanied by other symptoms like sweating, dizziness of head, pain
spreading to neck or hands , an impending feel of doom ( badness), black outs
or unexplainable discomforts.
·
But
few times a heart attack can present even without the above typical features
too.
Who are at high
risk of heart attack?
·
Advancing
age is an inevitable risk factor
·
Family
history of heart attacks increase your risk for having an heart attack
·
waist circumference
more than ≥102.7 cm in men and ≥89.0
cm in women
·
BMI
more than 30 kg/m2 is associated with very high risk of heart disease
·
Uncontrolled
diabetes ( blood sugars) , blood pressures, cholesterol , thyroid disease
·
Smoking
,alcohol intake , drug abusers
·
Poor
lifestyle like intake of junk food, lack of daily exercise, stressful life,
What to do if chest pain?
·
Reach
to a nearest hospital with facilities to do an ECG and a physician to interpret
your ECG. If the ECG is inconclusive, repeat another ECG or do detailed
investigations if needed to find the other reasons for your pain.
Can we predict
heart attack?
·
Predicting
an underlying heart disease is possible, but it is not recommended routinely
for all people. Decision is to be based
on risk factors.
·
ECG,
Lipid profile, Stress ECG ( Thread mill test) , Echocardiography, Angiography .
·
Among
these, most helpful test for an early heart
vessel disease will be an angiography.
·
The
choice of test is to be decided after getting evaluated by your physician or Cardiologist.
What can we do?
·
Not
all can do all tests every day. But best thing we can do for ourselves is
good life style, control of diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid
disease, getting rid of unhealthy habits
·
Cardiac
disease screening is necessary only if you have significant risk factors for
developing a heart attack, the decision for which can be taken after discussing
with your physician.
Above all let the Creator guide your paths.
17-10-2022
Informative..
ReplyDeleteThankyou sir.. Boost more like this.
ReplyDelete