Heart Attack Is Not Sudden
Cardiac Arrest
New Delhi, April 25,
2014: Rajendra Tolani, 65, was hospitalized after he was found unconscious in
his office by his son, Kapil, who panicked thinking he might have had suffered a
heart attack. In hospital, doctors conveyed him that his father had a sudden
cardiac arrest. Not knowing much about it, what he still told to the family
members was that it was a heart attack.
Kapil is at no fault here. There are many like him who do
not understand the difference between heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest.
They take both these as one and the same thing, when it is not. In case of
heart attack, there is a blockage in artery due to which the flow of
oxygen-rich blood gets halted. While, sudden cardiac arrest happens when heart
suddenly stops beating on account of malfunction in electrical impulses.
“Due to fat and plaque deposition in the heart’s artery, a
blockage starts developing, which hampers the blood blow. On being completely
blocked, it triggers a heart attack. While irregular heartbeats, known as
arrhythmia, which when not treated leads to sudden cardiac arrest. Simply, heart
attack takes place due to ‘circulation’ malfunction, while sudden cardiac
arrest happens on account of ‘electrical’ malfunction in the heart,” says Dr Vanita Arora, Associate
Director & Head, Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab and Arrhythmia Services, Max
Hospital, Saket.
Human heart is an important organ in a human body and acts
like a pump. It supplies oxygen-rich blood to every cell of the body. The heart
has four chambers -- two smaller, upper chambers called the right and left
atria. Below them are two larger, lower chambers called the right and left
ventricles. Through powerful contractions, or simply put heartbeats, these
chambers constantly pump oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the entire body. The
heart’s continuous contraction happens due to its own electrical conduction
system.
The most common trigger of Sudden Cardiac Arrest is
ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
Sudden cardiac arrest is related to Arrhythmia, which is
heart rhythm disorder. Abnormally slow heart rhythms (usually rates may be
abnormally slow or below 50 beats per minute) are known as Bradycardia, while
abnormally fast heart rates (usually 150 or more beats per minute) are known as
Tachycardia. Irregular fast heartbeats in the ventricles are called ventricular
tachycardia. When the ventricles start fluttering or quivering, the condition
is called ventricular fibrillation.
Due to ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation,
the blood flow to the brain gets reduced, leading to immediate loss of
consciousness and death.
Symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest and
treatment
Though Sudden Cardiac Arrest happens often without any
warning, there are some symptoms which can ring a warning bell:
·
Fainting intermittently
·
Sudden collapse
·
Blackouts
·
Dizziness
·
Loss of consciousness
·
Shortness of breath
·
Chest pain
·
Palpitations and vomiting
·
Fatigue and weakness
A person can be treated with a bypass surgery or angioplasty
after a heart attack, while in case of arrhythmias the condition can be cured with
implantation of implantation of pacemaker devices,
including Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). It is also treated
through radiofrequency ablation, in which the doctors burn the points from
where irregular beats originate.
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