Comprehensive Report: Myocardial Infarction, Diagnosis, and Management

This report provides a comprehensive overview of myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack. It begins with an introduction defining myocardial infarction and its impact globally and in Canada, highlighting its significant contribution to mortality rates. The report details the classic and varied signs and symptoms, emphasizing the importance of recognizing these for timely intervention. It then outlines diagnostic studies, explaining how both medical and non-medical individuals can identify potential heart attack indicators. Treatment options are discussed, including the use of blood thinners, thrombolytics, and medications like nitroglycerin and beta-blockers to manage the condition. The report also addresses prognosis and necessary lifestyle changes, such as increased cardiovascular strength, breathing capacity, and exercise to aid recovery and improve patient outcomes. The conclusion emphasizes the prevalence of myocardial infarction and the importance of understanding its multifaceted aspects for effective patient care, referencing multiple research articles to support the information provided.

Myocardial infarction

Introduction
• Myocardial infarction or
commonly known as Heart
attack is the situation in which
blood flow decreases or
completely stops in a specific
portion of the heart.
• Due to this the heart muscles
get damaged and the patient
starts feeling discomfort and
pain in his or her chest
(Bandstein et al., 2014).

Rate around the world and in Canada
• Myocardial infarction or other cardiovascular diseases
contributed in the world mortality rate by 30% as more
than 50 million people die due to myocardial infarction
every year around the world.
• Around 158,700 people in Canada suffers from ischemic
heart diseases and approximately 92,000 people die due to
myocardial infarction in the country (Gimenez et al., 2014).

Signs and symptoms
• The classic symptoms of heart attack or myocardial infarction is chest pain,
associated with shortness of breath however depending on the patients and
their health condition, the symptoms varies.
• Tightness or heavy pressure on the chest
• Heavy sweating
• Nausea
• Anxiety
• Dizziness
• Pain in chest, jaws, back
• Faster heart rate
• Cough (O'Gara et al., 2013).

Diagnostic studies
• Diagnosis of a myocardial infarction is an important step and the first
diagnosis should be done immediately so that immediate care could be
provided., hence, the diagnosis process a non-medical person will follow is:
• Patient will complain about back, jaws and chest pain.
• They experience dizziness and numbness in their body
• Patient’s blood pressure falls and they suffer from fainting spells (Soliman
et al., 2014).

Diagnostic studies (cont..)
• For a non medical person, understanding heart attack is associated
with severe pain in the left portion of the body, with inability to lift
the left arm,
• Further, the patient becomes unable to move his or her jaws and
also becomes unable to utter constructive sentences.
• Besides this, the patient starts sweating heavily and complains
about shortness of breath (Gimenez et al., 2014).

Treatment options/medications
• This health condition requires immediate treatment as due to the
blockage in the heart, the heart muscles starts degrading and
without initial and immediate support they become damaged.
• The primary thing which should be provided to the patient is a
blood thinner such as aspirin so that the blot clots could be
avoided.
• Besides this, thrombolytics could also be used to thin the blod
and remove clots from arteries (O'Gara et al., 2013).

Treatment option/medications (cont..)
• Further, to widen the blood
vessels and maintain the normal
blood pressure, nitroglycerins
should be provided to the
patient,
• Beta blocker medications should
also be used to relax the heart
muscles and lower the blood
pressure to protect it from the
damages that could occur in the
heart muscles (Soliman et al.,
2014).

Prognosis/lifestyle changes
• Prognosis of heart attack is an
important and only way to deal with
damages of heart muscles after the
attack of myocardial infarction.
• Patient should change his or her
lifestyle to combat such damages
occurred due to heart attack
• Patient should focus on the
increased cardio vascular strength,
breathing capacity and increased
joint flexibility (Gimenez et al.,
2014).

Prognosis/lifestyle changes (cont..)
• Further, patient should start
mild exercise so that the
blood circulation and oxygen
level in the blood increases
and muscle tone and strength
increases.
• Further, it will also help in
increased strength and
endurance of the patient as
well as energy level in the
patient (Soliman et al., 2014).

Conclusion
• Myocardial infarction is one of the most occurring and
common cardiovascular disorder affecting a larger
population around the world.
• This presentation provides a detailed idea of its signs and
symptoms, with diagnosis and treatment options available.
• These treatment options and diagnostic methods are easily
followed by non-medical person so that immediate care
could be provided to the patients.

References
Bandstein, N., Ljung, R., Johansson, M., & Holzmann, M. J. (2014). Undetectable high-
sensitivity cardiac troponin T level in the emergency department and risk of myocardial
infarction. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 63(23), 2569-2578.
Gimenez, M. R., Reiter, M., Twerenbold, R., Reichlin, T., Wildi, K., Haaf, P., ... & Sou, S. M.
(2014). Sex-specific chest pain characteristics in the early diagnosis of acute
myocardial infarction. JAMA internal medicine, 174(2), 241-249.
O'Gara, P. T., Kushner, F. G., Ascheim, D. D., Casey, D. E., Chung, M. K., De Lemos, J. A., ...
& Granger, C. B. (2013). 2013 ACCF/AHA guideline for the management of ST-elevation
myocardial infarction: a report of the American College of Cardiology
Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Journal of
the American College of Cardiology, 61(4), e78-e140.
Soliman, E. Z., Safford, M. M., Muntner, P., Khodneva, Y., Dawood, F. Z., Zakai, N. A., ... &
Herrington, D. M. (2014). Atrial fibrillation and the risk of myocardial infarction. JAMA
internal medicine, 174(1), 107-114.