Tag Archives: heart attack

Consumer Updates > FDA Strengthens Warning of Heart Attack and Stroke Risk for Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs

Posted on by MaryO

Next time you reach into the medicine cabinet seeking relief for a headache, backache or arthritis, be aware of important safety information for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

FDA is strengthening an existing warning in prescription drug labels and over-the-counter (OTC) Drug Facts labels to indicate that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke, either of which can lead to death. Those serious side effects can occur as early as the first few weeks of using an NSAID, and the risk might rise the longer people take NSAIDs. (Although aspirin is also an NSAID, this revised warning doesn’t apply to aspirin.)

The OTC drugs in this group are used for the temporary relief of pain and fever. The prescription drugs in this group are used to treat several kinds of arthritis and other painful conditions. Because many prescription and OTC medicines contain NSAIDs, consumers should avoid taking multiple remedies with the same active ingredient.

via Consumer Updates > FDA Strengthens Warning of Heart Attack and Stroke Risk for Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs.

Don’t Ignore These Early Signs Of Heart Disease In Men | Michael Lazar

Posted on by MaryO

Early Signs Of Heart Disease In Men

While many men may be unaware that they suffer from heart disease until a major incident, like a heart attack, occurs, there are several red flags that you should be aware of to better detect problems with the heart during the earliest and most treatable phases, explains WebMD.

The early stages of heart disease may have come-and-go symptoms that include:

Out of breath after moderate exercise, like climbing stairs.

A feeling of achiness or squeezing in the chest that can last 30 minutes or longer.

Pain in the upper extremities that can’t be explained.

Sometimes heart disease is caused by blood vessels. Key early signs include:

Chest pain

Shortened breath

Pain or tingling in the upper extremities

These symptoms could mean that your blood vessels have narrowed and are constricted. This can sometimes be caused by the build-up of plaque, which forces the heart to work harder to pump blood.

via Don’t Ignore These Early Signs Of Heart Disease In Men | Michael Lazar.

Big Step in regenerating the heart muscle

Posted on by MaryO

A remarkable discovery in heart research was made by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart: they found the surface markers of cardiovascular functional living progenitor cells CPCs. This discovery is extremely important for heart research because it demonstrates that the cardiovascular progenitor cells CPCs can be derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS cells. Investigation results were recently published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Progenitor cells are cells that are normally found only in the fetus and have the ability to develop into all cell types of the heart: cardiomyocytes, etc. The goal of the study led by Prof. Dr. Katja Schenke-by Layland from the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart, was to produce functional cardiomyocytes from progenitor cells. Cardiomyocytes are heart muscle cells that play an essential role in contraction. Myocardial infarction leads to loss of functional cardiomyocytes. As a result of a blockage of a coronary artery, myocardium served by that artery will not be supplied with oxygen anymore, thus it will die. A frequent consequence of patients who suffer a heart attack is heart failure, which means decreased ability of the heart contraction.

Read more at Big Step in regenerating the heart muscle.

As of Today…

Posted on by MaryO

Cardiac rehab is finished!

WOOHOO

 

The heart attack was January 27, 2013 and it took until today to finish the rehab but it got done.  We’ve both learned quite a bit and I doubt that we’ll ever go back to our earlier way of eating.

What a journey this has been – and I hope it’s done now.

I know that there’s always something else right around the corner but I hope it doesn’t hit us too soon.

Prevent heart attack and stroke

Posted on by MaryO
Generic regular strength enteric coated 325mg ...

Generic regular strength enteric coated 325mg aspirin tablets. The orange tablets are imprinted in black with “L429”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This brief article will provide information and links to where additional information can be found to help you recognize and hopefully prevent a heart attack or stroke.

According to cardiologists, most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 a.m. and noon. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. Aspirin has a 24-hour “half-life” therefore, the aspirin would be strongest in your system when most heart attacks happen, in the wee hours of the morning.

A 2012 RetiredBrains survey of cardiologists provides the following information on the symptoms, warning signs and treatment for heart attack and stroke.

How to recognize heart attack symptoms

Chest discomfort that feels like pressure, or seems like a squeezing pain in the center of your chest. This pain generally lasts for more than a few minutes, but sometimes goes away and returns.

Pain and/or discomfort that extends beyond your chest to other parts of your upper body, such as one or both arms, back, neck, stomach, teeth, and even your jaw; shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort. Other symptoms include: cold sweats, nausea or vomiting, lightheadedness, indigestion, and fatigue.

What should I do when heart attack symptoms occur

If you or someone you are with experiences chest discomfort or other heart attack symptoms the first thing you should do is call 9-1-1.

Don’t wait to make the call. Don’t drive yourself to the hospital. Don’t drive the person having a heart attack to the hospital. Immediate treatment lessens heart damage and can save your life. Emergency medical services personnel can begin treatment in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and are trained to revive a person if his/her heart stops. Some people delay treatment because they are not sure they are really having a heart attack. Remember call 911 immediately as treatment given within an hour of the first heart attack symptoms saves lives and damage to the heart and substantially increases the chances of survival.

What should I do before paramedics arrive

If 911 has been called:

1. Try to keep the person calm, and have them sit or lie down.

2. If the person isn’t allergic to aspirin, have them chew and swallow an aspirin (It works faster when chewed than swallowed whole.)

3. If the person stops breathing, you or someone else who is qualified should perform CPR immediately. If you don’t know CPR, the 9-1-1 operator can assist you until the EMS personnel arrive.

For more information, check out the heart disease section on Mayo Clinic’s site and the warning signs of heart attack, stroke and cardiac arrest, compiled by the American Heart Association.

The information contained in this article should not be substituted for the advice of your physician. If you experience any symptoms or are concerned about your health in any way, you should immediately seek the advice of your physician.

From MarketWatch

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Heart Attack? Doctors Soon May Have an App for That

Posted on by MaryO

There are apps that turn your smartphone into a metal detector, a musical instrument and a GPS system, and now there’s an app that may help doctors save your life if you’re having a heart attack.

The app, which was designed by engineers and critical care physicians, helps doctors rapidly diagnose certain kinds of severe heart attacks, called STEMIs, before patients get to the hospital.

The app currently is in the experimental stage, but it has undergone field testing.

In a STEMI heart attack, which stands for ST segment elevated myocardial infarction, a clot completely blocks blood flow to the heart. About a quarter of a million people have STEMIs each year in the United States.

These kinds of heart attacks create a unique pattern of pulses when doctors hook up patients to an electrocardiogram, or EKG, machine, which measures the heart’s electrical activity.

The problem is that doctors need to see the EKG reading, which is called a tracing, to properly diagnose the attack and quickly assemble the team of specialists that is needed to clear the clot.

There are proprietary systems that use EKG machines hooked up to modems to send images back to hospital computers, but those systems are expensive and not all hospitals and EMS systems can afford them.

As an alternative, paramedics can use their smartphones in the field to snap a picture of the tracing and send it to a doctor at the hospital via email.

But as anyone who has ever tried to email a picture from their phone knows, it’s far from foolproof. Large, high-quality images — the kind doctors need to see — can take several minutes to send and receive.

To address the issue, Dr. David Burt, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Virginia, challenged a class of systems engineering students to develop an app that could shrink images to make them faster to send, but still maintain the clarity needed for diagnoses.

“It’s very easy to use,” Burt said. “You hold it over the EKG tracing, you snap a picture.” Hitting a button sends the image. When it’s finished, the app shakes and makes noise to alert senders to the successful transmission.

“It’s very simple but we want it to be very rugged, so that it’s kind of like a hammer — it always works,” he said. He also wants to offer the app at no cost to doctors and hospitals.

So far, Burt said, they have tested the app more than 1,500 times using different wireless carriers in a city.

They also have pitted the app against the alternative method of using an iPhone to email a picture. In that study, the app consistently sent images within four to six seconds. Emailed images could take nearly two minutes to go through. The app failed less than 1 percent of the time, while the emailed images flopped between 3 percent and 71 percent of the time, according to the study.

The study is scheduled for presentation Friday at an American Heart Association meeting in Baltimore. Studies presented at medical conferences are considered preliminary because they haven’t yet undergone the scrutiny required for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Dr. Iltifat Husain, founder of the iMedicalApps website, which keeps up with news about technology in medicine, said he was impressed by the app, but also by how thoroughly the team has been testing it. Husain estimates that less than 1 percent of apps that are developed for doctors are field tested to see if they actually work.

“Something like this would have to be tested before it was put to use because of how critical the information is that you’re relaying,” said Husain, who was not involved in the research.

Husain, who also is an emergency medicine resident at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., said the time the app shaves off image transmission could be critical.

“The longer you wait, the more heart muscle dies, so every minute counts,” he said. “Actually, every second counts.”

Surviving a STEMI depends on how quickly doctors can restore blood flow, which often is done by snaking a catheter up to the heart and using a small balloon to clear the clot.

“We’ll get an EKG reading and the ER physician will activate the cath lab. Once you activate it, a huge team has to be assembled,” Husain said. “If it’s overnight, people are sometimes coming in from home. If you can get someone coming in from home five minutes faster, I think it’s a big deal.”

More information

For more about heart attacks, head to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

SOURCES: David Burt, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Iltifat Husain, M.D., second-year emergency medicine resident, Wake Forest Baptist Health System, Winston-Salem, N.C., and founder, iMedicalApps website; May 17, 2013, presentation, American Heart Association meeting, Baltimore

Read more at http://www.philly.com

Heart attacks: What you should know

Posted on by MaryO
Three coronary artery bypass grafts, a LIMA to...

Three coronary artery bypass grafts, a LIMA to LAD and two saphenous vein grafts – one to the right coronary artery (RCA) system and one to the obtuse marginal (OM) system. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: Dr. John P. Reilly is editor-in-chief ofsecondscount.org, the patient education website of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, which is focused on raising awareness of heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. Reilly is the program director for the Cardiology Fellowship Program at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

(CNN) — If you are one of the nearly 785,000 Americans who suffer a first heart attack this year, what you do in the first few minutes can determine an entire lifetime.

Unfortunately, many people do not know what symptoms to look for or what life-saving steps to take. To help make sense of it all, the following can help you or someone you know survive a heart attack:

Q: What are the top three things I should know about heart attacks?

A: When a heart attack strikes, seconds count.

Seek medical attention immediately. The longer your symptoms persist, the greater the amount of heart muscle damage you may suffer. The start of your symptoms is a signal that blood flow to your heart muscle has been blocked. The emergency department and interventional cardiologist or surgeon will move quickly to restore blood flow to your heart to prevent further damage.

Call 911 for an ambulance. Don’t drive yourself or have someone else drive you. During a heart attack, your heart rhythm can become abnormal or even stop.

Emergency medical providers can perform an electrocardiogram, or EKG, on the way to the hospital and confirm whether you are having a heart attack and treat your heart rhythm abnormalities if needed. They can also call the hospital in advance to prepare a medical team for your arrival so treatment can start immediately.

If available, chew one uncoated aspirin while waiting for the ambulance. This may help slow the formation of blood clots that can cause heart attacks.

Q: What are the common symptoms of heart attacks, and how do they differ between men and women?

A: We’ve all seen the scenario where the actor grabs his or her chest in agonizing pain and falls to the ground. A heart attack seems obvious, but in real life, it’s not always that clear.

Heart attack symptoms can vary and don’t always involve debilitating chest pain. Many patients say their symptoms were not painful but more like an ache or discomfort. Symptoms may start with a dull pain in the chest or disguise themselves as indigestion, nausea, shortness of breath or heartburn. Other common symptoms include arm, neck, jaw, back or upper stomach discomfort, dizziness, change in heart rhythm and sudden cold sweats.

But these symptoms may differ for your wife, mother or sister because women do not always experience the same heart attack symptoms as men. Symptoms may be subtle and difficult to identify and may not even include chest pain.

While this does not mean women cannot have chest pain, other symptoms that may signal a heart attack for women include sudden weakness and fatigue, body aches or flu-like symptoms. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, so it’s important that you don’t ignore these symptoms, regardless of how subtle they are.

Q: What are my heart attack treatment options?

A: There are various treatment options available when you’re having a heart attack. The most effective treatment is angioplasty and stenting. In some cases, clot-busting medication is administered intravenously. In rare and severe cases, emergency coronary artery bypass grafting is needed.

Angioplasty is a minimally invasive, nonsurgical procedure that opens the blocked artery. During the procedure, a small mesh tube called a stent may be placed in the artery to restore blood flow and scaffold the vessel open.

Clot-busting medications melt away the blood clot that is blocking the artery. Coronary artery bypass grafting is open-heart surgery where a healthy artery or vein from elsewhere in the body is connected upstream and downstream from the heart artery blockage, bypassing the blockage and creating a new path for blood flow.

Fortunately, medical technology has advanced tremendously in recent years, and many patients can return home and back to their normal — if not better — quality of life within days of treatment.

Q: What should I do following my heart attack?

A: Experiencing a heart attack is a life-changing event and an important time to reflect upon your current lifestyle.

Cardiac rehabilitation benefits many patients by helping them resume a healthy lifestyle following their heart attack. You’ll also be taking medication regularly. Adhering to your medical therapy and scheduling consistent follow-up visits with your cardiologist and primary care doctor are both beneficial habits to adopt.

In addition, it’s important to become your heart’s No. 1 health advocate. Assess your current lifestyle and see where you can make improvements. Can you eat healthier and exercise more, reduce your stress levels or quit smoking? These changes will greatly increase your odds of fighting off future heart attacks.

From CNN.com

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Cardiac Rehabilitation Starts Today!

Posted on by MaryO

cardiac-rehab

DH finally starts his cardiac rehab today, just over 8 weeks after his triple bypass.

Cardiac rehabilitation (rehab) teaches you how to be more active and make lifestyle changes that can lead to a stronger heart and better health. Cardiac rehab can help you feel better and reduce your risk of future heart problems.

In cardiac rehab, you work with a team of health professionals. Often the team includes a doctor, a nurse specialist, a dietitian, an exercise therapist, and a physical therapist. The team designs a program just for you, based on your health and goals. Then they give you support to help you succeed.

If you have had a heart attack, you may be afraid to exercise. Or if you have never exercised, you may not know how to get started. Your cardiac rehab team will help you start slowly and work up to a level that is good for your heart.

Many hospitals and rehab centers offer cardiac rehab programs. You may be part of a cardiac rehab group, but each person will follow his or her own plan.

Who should take part in cardiac rehab?

Doctors often prescribe cardiac rehab for people who have had a heart attack or bypass surgery. But people with many types of heart or blood vessel disease can benefit from cardiac rehab. Rehab might help you if you have:

  • Heart failure.
  • Peripheral artery disease (PAD).
  • Had or plan to have a heart transplant.
  • Had angioplasty to open a coronary artery.
  • Had another type of heart surgery, such as valve replacement.

Often people are not given the chance to try cardiac rehab. Or they may start a program but drop out. This is especially true of women and older adults. And that’s not good news, because they can get the same benefits as younger people. If your doctor suggests cardiac rehab, stay with it so you can get the best results.

Medicare will pay for cardiac rehab for people with certain heart problems. Many insurance companies also provide coverage. Check with your insurance company or your hospital to see if you will be covered.

What happens in cardiac rehab?

In cardiac rehab, you will learn how to:

  • Manage your heart disease and problems such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
  • Exercise safely.
  • Eat a heart-healthy diet.
  • Quit smoking.
  • Reduce stress and depression.
  • Get back to work sooner and safely.

Exercise is a big part of cardiac rehab. So before you get started, you will have a full checkup, which may include tests such as an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) and a “stress test” (exercise electrocardiogram). These tests show how well your heart is working. They will help your team design an exercise program that is safe for you.

At first your rehab team will keep a close watch on how exercise affects your heart. As you get stronger, you will learn how to check your own heart rate when you exercise. By the end of rehab, you will be ready to continue an exercise program on your own.

What are the benefits of cardiac rehab?

Starting cardiac rehab after a heart attack can lower your chance of dying from heart disease and can help you stay out of the hospital. It may reduce your need for medicine.

Cardiac rehab may also help you to:

  • Have better overall health.
  • Lose weight or keep weight off.
  • Feel less depressed and more hopeful.
  • Have more energy and feel better about yourself.

Changing old habits is hard. But in cardiac rehab, you get the support of experts who can help you make new healthy habits. And meeting other people who are in cardiac rehab can help you know that you’re not alone.

Adapted from CardioSmart.org

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Warning Signs of Heart Disease & Heart Attack

Posted on by MaryO
An example of a heart attack, which can occur ...

An example of a heart attack, which can occur after the use of a performance-enhancing drug. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Preventing Heart Disease and Heart Attack Educational Video. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Act in Time to Heart Attack Signs; Item #56-042N, September 2001;

 

The dramatic, moving stories of three heart attack survivors and their families illustrate the importance of heeding heart attack warning signs and seeking medical care quickly. They vividly convey how a real heart attack may differ from the stereotypical “movie heart attack” and how getting immediate treatment can save lives. The warm and sympathetic narration by an emergency department physician explains what a heart attack is, the treatments that can save lives if given quickly, why many heart attack victims delay seeking care, and how to make a heart attack survival plan. Useful for health fairs, medical waiting rooms, community groups, and home viewing.

 

Producer: National Institutes of Health; Keywords: hhs.gov; public_safety; Creative Commons license: Public Domain.

 

Heart Attack Warning Signs. A heart attack is a frightening event, and you probably don’t want to think about it. But, if you learn the signs of a heart attack and what steps to take, you can save a life–maybe your own. What are the signs of a heart attack? Many people think a heart attack is sudden and intense, like a “movie” heart attack, where a person clutches his or her chest and falls over. The truth is that many heart attacks start slowly, as a mild pain or discomfort. If you feel such a symptom, you may not be sure what’s wrong. Your symptoms may even come and go. Even those who have had a heart attack may not recognize their symptoms, because the next attack can have entirely different ones. Women may not think they’re at risk of having a heart attack–but they are.

 

Learn more about women and heart attack. It’s vital that everyone learn the warning signs of a heart attack. These are: Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain. Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach. Shortness of breath. Often comes along with chest discomfort. But it also can occur before chest discomfort. Other symptoms. May include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or light-headedness. Learn the signs–but also remember: Even if you’re not sure it’s a heart attack, you should still have it checked out. Fast action can save lives-maybe your own.

 

After you learn more about heart attack, try a brief quiz to see if you know what to do if you or someone else has warning signs. How do you survive a heart attack? Fast action is your best weapon against a heart attack. Why? Because clot-busting drugs and other artery-opening treatments can stop a heart attack in its tracks. They can prevent or limit damage to the heart–but they need to be given immediately after symptoms begin. The sooner they are started, the more good they will do–and the greater the chances are for survival and a full recovery. To be most effective, they need to be given ideally within 1 hour of the start of heart attack symptoms. You can reduce your risk of having a heart attack—even if you already have coronary heart disease (CHD) or have had a previous heart attack. The key is to take steps to prevent or control your heart disease risk factors.

 

Six Key Steps To Reduce Heart Attack Risk; Taking these steps will reduce your risk of having a heart attack: Stop smoking; Lower high blood pressure; Reduce high blood cholesterol; Aim for a healthy weight; Be physically active each day. Manage diabetes.

 

http://youtu.be/3YW0bbON-30

 

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Posted on by MaryO

A heart attack occurs about every 20 seconds with a heart attack death about every minute…

Dr. Michelle Capdeville's avatarDr. Michelle Capdeville, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology

  • 1.5 million heart attacks occur in the United States each year with 500,000 deaths.
  • More than 233,000 women die annually from cardiovascular disease.
  • A heart attack occurs about every 20 seconds with a heart attack death about every minute.
  • Sudden death is more common among women with heart attack.
  • The National Registry of Myocardial Infarctions (New England Journal Med., 22Jul99) reports that women have a worse outcome than men after having a heart attack. Data showed that women under the age of 50 had twice the mortality of men after having a heart attack. Variances likely reflect increased severity of the disease in younger women.
  • Almost 14 million Americans have a history of heart attack or angina.
  • About 50% of deaths occur within one hour of the heart attack ––outside a hospital.
  • There is a 6% to 9% early mortality from heart attack for those who survive long enough to…

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