Beat it!

Q: What are the symptoms of a heart attack?
A: The commonly observed symptoms of heart attack are chest pain or discomfort such as squeezing,fullness or pressure over chest. This may be accompanied with profuse sweating as well. The discomfort may wax and wane and might also be accompanied with breathlessness and palpitations. The pain might radiate to one or both arms,jaw or middle of abdomen. Sometimes the patient may become unconscious and occasionally albeit unfortunately the first symptom of heart attack is death. The patient may also complaint of nausea,exhaustion,heart burns or might just feel “not the usual normal self”.

Q: Is it possible that a heart attack can go unnoticed?
A: Unfortunately that is true. Some heart attacks go unobserved. This is actually more dangerous,as pain actually takes the patient to the cardiologist. These silent heart attacks are more common in the elderly,diabetics and those who are suffering from high blood pressure. Another important aspect of this fact is that sometimes patients tend to overlook the heart attack pain or the diagnosis is missed altogether leading to failure of identification of a minor heart attack.

Q: What one should do in case of a heart attack?
A: Please do not ignore your symptoms and contact your doctor without delay. There are various modalities available for treating heart attack. Most importantly on reaching hospital an ECG must be done and those at risk must receive an aspirin tablet. The benefits of chewing a tablet of aspirin are enormous and durable. We have now various clot bursting medications which can dissolve the blood clot as well as therapies which open up the blocked arteries mechanically by percutaneous means. This is known as PTCA or Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty. In certain cases of severe disease emergency bypass surgery is needed as well.

Q: How can one be better prepared?
A: Those who have been ruled out for heart attack should get themselves evaluated for future risk of heart attack which is known as risk stratification. In fact,all adults should get themselves evaluated for heart attack risk which essentially is to “know your numbers”. All of us should know our numerical ideal body weight for our height and how much we actually weigh,our blood sugar number,our cholesterol values and our blood pressure. We should refrain from all kinds of tobacco and take only optimum quantities of alcohol. Importantly,we should eat a heart-healthy diet and indulge in a regular exercise programme.

(The writer is an interventional senior consultant cardiologist at INSCOL Hospital,Chandigarh and Fortis Hospital,Mohali)