Helpful guide
What Is Coronary Artery Disease?
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is one of the most common health diseases. It’s called either Coronary Artery Disease or Ischemic Heart Disease.
What causes Coronary Artery Disease(CAD)?
When the coronary arteries are narrow, they are not able to supply oxygenic blood to your heart. Especially at the moments when your heart is beating rapidly (like when you do exercises, running or sports). Primarily, the decreasing flow may not show any symptoms.While the plaque continues to build up, nevertheless, you may develop these coronary artery disease symptoms and signs indicated below.
Signs & Symptoms
Chest Pain(Angina): A person who suffers from CAD may feel pressure or tightness in their chest, like someone is standing on their chest. This pain is called angina, usually occurs on the middle or the left side of the chest.
Angina is generally triggered by physical or emotional stress. The pain typically goes away within minutes after stopping the action that causes stress. In some people, especially women, the pain may be brief or sharp and can be felt in the neck, arm and back.
Shortness Of Breath:
If someone's heart can’t pump enough blood to meet their body’s needs, they may develop shortness of breath or extreme fatigue with activity.
Heart Attack:
A completely blocked coronary artery will cause a heart attack hence the arteries can not carry enough oxygenated blood.
The basic signs and symptoms of a heart attack include crashing pressure in their chest and pain in shoulder or arm, and sometimes with shortness of breath and sweating.
Women are a little more likely than men to have less typical signs and symptoms of a heart attack, such as neck or jaw pain.
Also they may have other symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea and fatigue.
From time to time, a heart attack also occurs without any evident signs or symptoms.
When is it recommended to see a doctor?
If you’re feeling like you are having a heart attack, promptly call 911 or your local emergency number. If there is no access to emergency medical services, you should have someone drive you to the closest hospital.
Causes
Coronary artery disease is thought to begin with damaging or injuring the inner layer of the coronary artery, and from time to time as early as childhood times. The damage may be caused by numerous factors, consisting:
Smoking
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Diabetes or insulin resistance
Not being active(sedentary lifestyle)
When the inner wall of an artery is damaged, fatty deposits (plaque) made of cholesterol and other cellular waste products tend to collect at the site of injury. This process is called atherosclerosis.
If the plaque surface breaks or ruptures, blood cells called platelets clump together at the site to try to repair the artery. This clump can block arteries, leading to a heart attack.
Risk factors
Risk factors for Coronary Artery Disease include:
Age: Getting older increases your risk of damaged and narrowed arteries.
Sex: Men are usually at greater risk of CAD. Nevertheless, the risk for women increases after menopause.
Family History: The family history of heart diseases are associated with a higher risk of coronary artery disease, especially if a close relative developed heart disease at an early age.
Smoking: People who smoke have a significantly increased risk of heart disease. Breathing in secondhand smoke also increases a person’s risk of coronary artery disease.
High Blood Pressure: Uncontrolled high blood pressure can result in hardening and thickening of your arteries, narrowing the channel through which blood can flow.
High Blood Cholesterol Levels: High levels of cholesterol in your blood can increase the risk of formation of plaque and atherosclerosis. High cholesterol can be caused by a high level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, known as the “unfortunate” cholesterol. A low level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, known as the “good” cholesterol.
Diabetes: Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease. Type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease share alike risk factors, such as obesity and high blood pressure.
Overweight and Obesity: Excess weight typically can worsen other risk factors.
Physical Inactivity: In addition, lack of exercise also is associated with coronary artery disease and some of its risk factors.
High Stress: Unrelieved stress in your life may damage your arteries, as well as worsen other other risk factors of coronary artery disease.
Unhealthy Diet: Eating too much food that has high amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, salt and sugar can increase the risk of coronary artery disease.
Risk factors can often occur together, and one may trigger another. For instance, obesity can actually lead to type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. When grouped together, certain risk factors make it even more probable to develop coronary artery disease.
Coronary Artery Disease can lead to having chest pain (angina) as mentioned, heart attack, heart failure and abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia).
Diagnosis
Diagnosing Coronary Artery Disease contains physical examinations, review of the patient’s medical history and other tests.
These tests include:
Electrocardiogram: Monitors electrical signals that travel through your heart. It may help the doctor to determine if the patient had a heart attack before.
Echocardiogram: This imaging test uses ultrasound waves to create a picture of the patient’s heart. The aim of this test is to see if the heart is functioning properly or not.
Stress Test: This test measures the stress on the heart during physical activity while at a rest. The test monitors the heart of the patient’s electrical activity while you walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike.
For the people who are unable to perform physical exercise, some medications can be used instead for stress testing.
Cardiac Catheterization(left heart catheterization): During this procedure, the doctor injects a special dye into the coronary arteries through a catheter inserted through an artery in your groin or forearm.
Heart CT Scan: The doctor may use this imaging test to check for the calcium deposits in the patient’s arteries.
Prevention
Quit Smoking.
Control conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
Stay physically active as much as possible.
Eat a low-fat, low-salt diet that’s rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Maintain a healthy weight.
If possible, try to reduce and manage stress.
Treatment
Coronary Artery Disease can be treated, or be taken under control by some medications such as aspirin, nitroglycerin etc.
And if the patient’s condition doesn’t improve with lifestyle changes and medication, the doctor may recommend a procedure to increase blood flow to the heart.
These procedures can be:
Balloon angioplasty: To widen blocked arteries and smooth down the plaque buildup. It’s usually performed with insertion of a stent to help keep the lumen open after this procedure.
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: It’s done to restore blood flow to the heart in open chest surgery.
Enhanced External Counterpulsation: Is done to stimulate the formation of new small blood vessels to naturally bypass clogged arteries in a noninvasive procedure.
Sources
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