Chest pain is the most frequent symptom that precedes a myocardial infarction; however, there are people who do not have definite discomfort and this complicates diagnosis. In addition to identifying the symptoms, control of risk factors is essential to prevent the disease.
What is myocardial infarction?
The word infarction refers to the death of a tissue, of an organ, in our body, so myocardial infarction means death of a part of the heart. The most frequent cause of the death of a part of the heart is that the blood supply that carries oxygen and nutrients has stopped. The blood flow stops reaching the part of the heart because a coronary artery, which are the arteries on the surface of the heart that supply the heart muscle, are blocked. This obstruction in the coronary arteries is usually caused by the rupture of a fatty plaque inside the artery, and this rupture of the fatty plaque causes the formation of a blood clot, a thrombus, which completely interrupts the passage of blood through the artery.
What are the symptoms of myocardial infarction?
There are several typical symptoms of acute myocardial infarction, the most important of which is chest pain. There are many types of chest pains, the most characteristic of myocardial infarction is an oppressive pain in the center of the thorax of prolonged duration, because the pain of infarction does not subside, and sometimes it goes to the left arm, to the jaw, to the upper part of the abdomen. On many occasions it is also accompanied by what we call the vegetative cortex, the desire to vomit, cold sweating… We must bear in mind that these symptoms are typical in some people, but many other people have an infarction with symptoms that we call atypical, that is, pains that are not like the ones I have just described, but which are prickling in other areas, ill-defined discomfort or there are even people who have infarctions that do not hurt at all. Therefore, this is what makes it difficult to evaluate chest pain, and to rule out myocardial infarction, symptoms alone are not enough and we must also use other tests such as an electrocardiogram and a blood test.
After a myocardial infarction, are there any limitations to lead a normal life?
The word myocardial infarction is very generic in the sense that it includes patients who have had large infarctions and other patients who may have had very small, almost microscopic infarctions, and this is very important for the question we are addressing. Patients who have had a large infarction may have repercussions in their daily life, they may notice greater weakness, greater choking when they do physical exercise, but in many cases medium or small infarctions have no repercussions at all in the daily life of patients who have suffered an infarction. In any case, it is very important to try to avoid or minimize these limitations and complications by taking the medication prescribed at the time of the infarction, which should not only be taken during hospitalization but is a long-term medication.
What preventive measures should be taken after suffering the disease?
Prevention measures after an acute myocardial infarction are the same as those that allow us to avoid it. The fundamental ones are the control of what we call cardiovascular risk factors. The most important are hypertension, diabetes mellitus, high cholesterol, smoking…. For this reason, the patients’ lifestyle, diet and physical exercise are fundamental. In order to control the risk factors I have mentioned, medication is often necessary, taking anti-hypertensive drugs in the case of arterial hypertension, following a proper diet and also taking oral drugs and sometimes insulin in the case of diabetes mellitus, taking drugs called statins for the adequate control of cholesterol, of course giving up smoking completely and all this will allow us to not only avoid having a first episode of myocardial infarction, to prevent it, but also, once we have had it, to minimize the recurrence of this myocardial infarction in the future.