Heart Attack

A heart attack is an acute emergency that requires immediate action. If action is not taken quickly enough, any help comes too late. The best protection for your health is therefore medical prevention, such as the treatment and early detection of individual risk factors. These are long-term and effective measures, which our experienced doctors at all locations are here to support you with.

A heart attack is diagnosed on the basis of three concurrently present factors. These are:

• inadequate supply to the heart muscle
• damage to the tissue
• a pathological rise in troponin levels detected in your blood via laboratory analysis

Good to know: Troponin refers to proteins found in the heart muscle. When cardiac muscle cells die, these are released into your bloodstream and can be measured in the laboratory.

Every heart attack begins with atherosclerosis — a pathological build-up of plaque in your blood vessels. This deposit is carried along by your bloodstream and eventually reaches the coronary arteries, which supply your heart muscle, causing them to narrow.

In the small vessels, this leads to an inflammatory response in the form of platelet aggregation. These platelets narrow the coronary arteries even further.

The result: the vessels are eventually completely blocked and can no longer supply the heart muscle with blood. Cardiac muscle cells die irreversibly and scar tissue forms.

You can recognise a heart attack by the following typical symptoms:

• reduced physical capacity
• sudden chest pain (a “weight” on the chest or a feeling of constriction)
• pain radiating to the left shoulder and arm, or to the neck and lower jaw
• sweating / cold sweats
• nausea
• feeling of impending doom
• strong, rapid palpitations

Atypical symptoms include:

• reduced physical capacity
• particularly in women and older people: pain radiating to the right side of the body and the back
• fatigue
• particularly in people with diabetes: breathlessness as the sole symptom

A heart attack typically occurs suddenly (for example at night or at work) and requires a combination of two factors for successful treatment. These are: rapid diagnosis and immediate therapy. In an emergency, our experienced doctors at avi will help you as a patient with one of these two treatments as a first step:

• With rapid admission to hospital: implantation of a stent. This wire mesh opens the blocked vessels
• If a longer period has elapsed since the infarction: pharmacological dissolution of the blood clot (e.g. using heparin)

And since comprehensive aftercare is essential for a full recovery, we at avi are of course also here to support you in this regard at our practices. This aftercare includes:

• consistent (pharmacological) management of your blood coagulation, to prevent renewed platelet deposition on coronary arteries or stents
• assistance with managing blood pressure and blood lipid levels, and medical guidance on avoiding cardiac arrhythmias
• regular physical examinations, including laboratory and instrumental checks (ECG, sonography)
• advice on your fitness to drive