Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
THE HEALTHY GEEZER
By Fred Cicetti
In the last column, I wrote about the causes of heart attacks. In this, the last installment of a three-part series, we’ll discuss treatments for heart-attack victims.
Because of better care, most heart-attack victims survive today. There are improved tests, drugs and surgery to defend against heart attack. Here is a round-up of the options available to health care providers.
TESTS:
* An electrocardiogram records the heart’s electrical activity. This test is done because injured heart muscle generates abnormal impulses. If the ECG picks up abnormalities, physicians will know a patient has had a heart attack or that one may be in progress.
* If you have a heart attack, heart enzymes leak slowly into your blood. Therefore, physicians will draw blood to test for the enzymes.
* A chest X-ray is done to evaluate the size and shape of your heart and its blood vessels.
* A nuclear scan enables doctors to locate places where blood is not flowing properly to the heart. A radioactive material is injected into your bloodstream; cameras detect the radioactive material as it flows through your heart and lungs.
* An echocardiogram can tell if a part of the heart has been damaged by a heart attack. Sound waves are bounced off your heart and converted to images.
* An angiogram employs dye injected into your arteries. The dye makes the arteries visible to X-rays, which illustrate blockages.
* A stress test on a treadmill or stationary bike while hooked up to an ECG machine measures how your heart and arteries react when you exert yourself.
DRUGS
* Drugs helping to dissolve clots blocking blood to your heart are lifesavers. These drugs are known as thrombolytics or “clot-busters.” The earlier you are given a clot-buster, the better.
* A “superaspirin” is given with a clot-buster. The superaspirin prevents new clots from forming.
* Nitroglycerin is used to open arteries, improving blood flow to and from your heart.
* Regular aspirin keeps blood moving through constricted arteries. Therefore, paramedics may give aspirin when they respond to an emergency to treat a heart-attack victim. Aspirin reduces mortality from heart attacks.
* Beta blockers, which lower your pulse rate and blood pressure, can reduce damage to the heart.
* Drugs to lower cholesterol may be helpful if given soon after a heart attack begins.
* If you are in great pain, you may be given morphine.
SURGERY:
* Angioplasty opens blocked coronary arteries. In this procedure, a catheter is run through an artery to the blockage. The catheter, which is a long thin tube, has a balloon tip that is inflated to open the blockage. In most cases, a mesh tube (stent) is also placed inside the artery to hold it open.
* Coronary artery bypass surgery is not usually done when a heart attack occurs, but it may be recommended after recovery. During the operation, surgeons take a segment of a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body and make a detour around the blocked part of the coronary artery.
