You may be surprised to know that the terminologies of cardiac arrest and heart attack are often used interchangeably despite being different things. Cardiac arrest is usually a condition where the heart has stopped pumping blood. This is a pre-terminal condition and will often lead to death unless a beating heart is not restored using shock treatment or high-dose medications like adrenaline.
A heart attack, on the other hand, can be mild or severe and implies that a portion of the heart is not receiving enough blood and is in danger of infarction or death. Immediate restoration of blood to the affected parts of the heart will rapidly relieve the symptoms and improve health. The earlier the treatment, the better are the results of opening up the artery.
Know the difference between Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest from The Best Cardiac Surgeon in Pune – Dr. Benny Jose.
Heart Attack causes:
- A Heart Attack is generally caused due to the blockage of blood flow to the heart.
- A blocked artery prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching a section of the heart.
- If the blocked artery is not reopened quickly, the part of the heart normally nourished by that artery begins to die. This death of heart muscle is sensed as a throbbing pain over the chest.
Symptoms:
The symptoms of a heart attack may be immediate while the patient faces discomfort in the chest, upper body, shortness of breath, cold sweats, and nausea/vomiting.
Cardiac Arrest causes:
- Any life-threatening disease can lead to cardiac arrest as a pre-terminal event.
Symptoms:
The patient becomes unresponsive. If the patient doesn’t receive any treatment within a few minutes, the patient has high chances of death.
Conclusion:
Symptoms of Heart Attack start slowly but persist for hours, days or weeks before a heart attack. On the other hand, during a Cardiac Arrest, the heart immediately stops beating within very little time. Cardiac arrest is an ” electrical ” problem. A Heart attack is a ” Circulation ” problem.
About Dr. Benny Jose –
Dr. Benny Jose has a cumulative of 13 years of experience in treating cardiac ailments. He has gained the majority of his experience by working as a senior faculty in Asia’s largest cardiology institute, the U. N. Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre (affiliated to B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat). With an experience of over 5000 interventional and triple that of diagnostic coronary procedures, his interventional skills are beyond question. The Interventional services that he extends include complex coronary interventions, including but not limited to the use of ancillary cutting edge technologies like Rotablation, Intravascular ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography assisted coronary interventions.
Beyond coronary interventions, he also routinely performs peripheral vascular interventions like that for occluded blood vessels of the limbs, aortic interventions, and carotid interventions.
