|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Would Healthy People Have Better Survival Chance After Heart Attack Heart attack occurs when blood cannot flow to certain part of the heart due to blockage at the coronary artery and this can cause damage to the heart muscle. It is also called myocardial infarction or acute coronary syndrome. More than a million Americans experience heart attack every year. A heart attack can be life threatening. The best time to treat a heart attack is within 1 or 2 hours of the first onset of symptoms, which include chest pain. Sometimes, the pain may move from chest to arms, should, neck, teeth, jaw, belly area or back. Seeking emergent medical help is important. Prolonging the waiting time could damage the heart more and this will definitely lower the chance of survival. Patients with heart attack may be given medications to the blockage at the artery if these medicines are given within 3 hours after they first felt chest pain. This is known as thrombolytic therapy. More often, patients are asked to undergo angioplasty, which should be done within 90 minutes after admitting the hospital and no later than 12 hours after a heart attack. Angioplasty is a procedure to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. A stent is often placed after angioplasty to help prevent the artery from closing up again. Some patients, however, might have heart bypass surgery. Apart from those who could not survive from heart attack, most patients should be able to be discharged from the hospital after a few days.
In a paper published on November 16, 2011 in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’, a group of researchers from the United States reported that people with the warning signs of heart disease are more likely to survive their hospital stay for the first heart attack. Even after taking into account of some influencing factors such as age and weight, the more heart disease risk factors that patients had, the lower their chances of dying. The study analyzed data from a National Registry of Myocardial Infarction covering 542,008 people with first-time heart attacks between 1994 and 2006. Doctors took note of whether these patients had some of the 5 major traditional risk factors for heart disease (high blood pressure or cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and a family history of heart disease) during their stay at the hospitals. It was found that more than 85 percent of all patients had at least 1 of these risk factors and those with more of the risk factors had their heart attack younger, on average. A total of 50,788 patients died in the hospital. After taking into account that people with no risk factors were often older and adjusting for weight, race and gender, researchers found that non-smokers having no diabetes, family history of heart disease, or high cholesterol and high blood pressure, were still 50 percent more likely to die in the hospital than people with all those signs. 1 in 7 of patients with no heart warning signs died after suffering a heart attack, comparing to 1 in 28 patients having all the risk factors. The findings also showed that patients with more risk factors were more likely to get medications within the first 24 hours of their stay or to have heart surgery. While the rationale behind the findings was unclear, it is possible that people who already had known heart disease risk factors might have been on heart-protection medications, including statins and beta-blockers, before heart attack or had more contact with their doctors. On the other hand, people without the traditional risk factors might have had other underlying health risks that might induce a heart attack and increase the chance of death. As one ages, it is advisable to see a doctor on a regular basis even if he or she has no apparent risk factors. Identifying heart disease risk factors and be treated earlier can greatly improve the chance of survival in case of heart attack.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
