Posted on 09/09/2006 7:12:02 AM PDT by FairOpinion
Chest pain, breathlessness call for quick action, study finds
"Sudden cardiac death" often isn't all that sudden, and lives can be saved by training people about the symptoms of impending cardiac arrest and what action to take, a German study shows.
"A study of 406 sudden cardiac death patients indicates that they often have symptoms, especially the typical symptom angina pectoris [chest pain] for as long as 120 minutes before an arrest," said study lead author Dr. Dirk Muller, a cardiologist and emergency physician at the Medical Clinic II, Cardiology and Pulmonology, in Berlin.
"Two-thirds of cardiac arrest patients have a history that predisposes them to sudden cardiac death," Muller added, so efforts to reduce the toll should focus on teaching their family members to recognize the symptoms and how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
In the study, 72 percent of cardiac-arrest cases occurred at home, and two-thirds were witnessed by others.
The researchers collected information about symptoms preceding cardiac arrest for 323 patients. The most common warning sign was chest pain, which occurred for at least 20 minutes, and, in some cases, for hours, before cardiac arrest. Chest pain occurred in 25 percent of the patients whose cardiac arrest was witnessed by other persons and in one-third of other cases.
Breathlessness was the next most common symptom, seen in 17 percent of witnessed arrests and 30 percent of other cases. Other common symptoms were nausea, vomiting, dizziness or fainting.
CPR was performed on 57 patients, and 13 of them survived to be discharged from the hospital. The survival rate for those who did not get CPR was 4 percent -- 13 of 349 patients.
One notable fact was that CPR was more likely to be performed when cardiac arrest occurred in public cases -- 26 percent of the time, compared to 11 percent of the time when the attack occurred at home.
The study results were expected to be published in this week's issue of Circulation.
There are two significant messages from the study, said Dr. Ann Bolger, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.
"The first is that people need to be educated about how cardiac symptoms can present," Bolger said. "We always try to encourage people not to discount such things as shortness of breath, things that really should demand a response, because they could be a harbinger of early death.
"The second thing is that the family is important," she added. "Many of these patients have a known history of heart problems. They are not taking us by surprise. We know that one of these things can happen to them, so, it is important to get education that if there is chest pain that does not respond to nitroglycerine, they should call 911. When a patient has active heart disease, I try to make sure that they and their family get basic training about calling 911 and get the emergency medical service on the scene. People who don't get CPR before they get to the hospital have much worse outcomes."
According to the American Heart Association, cardiac arrest is the sudden loss of heart function. The victim may or may not have diagnosed heart disease; the most common cause of death is coronary heart disease.
The AHA estimates that 330,000 Americans die each year from heart disease before reaching a hospital and urges CPR training on a large scale.
More information
For more on CPR, visit the American Heart Association.
***others can eat anything, smoke, drink and have no ill effects. ****
My great-grandfather and great uncle both smoked, drank like fish and lived into their 90's. Neither died of heart attacks. My dad did at 70 years.
Two of my friends fell over dead with heart attacks. Neither smoked or drank. They were in their 40's and 50's. The younger one had just had two heart stents put in and still fell over dead at work.
here is an email i got from pattons mom a while back.
it's a pretty informative piece on detecting strokes.
very timely and also related to heart attacks. i hope
it helps some out there. :)
That is a good point...I am going to carry some in my purse...thank you
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
"But if you're a middle aged woman and you present at the ER with chest pain and breathlessness, they might just tell you you're having an anxiety attack.
Happened to my aunt, she went home from the ER, and died in her sleep the same day. "
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I believe it -- articles tend to put the blame on the patient, that the patient should go to the doctor, but ignore the FACT, that MOST doctors don't take patients' symptoms seriously, then it's too late. Doctors need to start taking patients' complaints seriously, instead of dismissing it as "it's probably nothing, it's all in your head" etc.
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
*** But if you're a middle aged woman and you present at the ER with chest pain and breathlessness, they might just tell you you're having an anxiety attack. ****
My mother-in-law is like this. Any flutter of the heart and she goes into a panic mode, calls 9-11, calls us. The emergency crews are usually there when we show up, she is hollering and making a scene.
The instant I and my wife walk in the door she immediatly settles down, then begins to gripe at the first responders. We have told them in the past that if she ever begins to gripe at them it means she is now OK.
It used to happen every month. Now she is on a different heart regulator medicine.
"genetics trump lifestyle every time."
California man lives to ripe age of 112, despite sausage-and-waffles diet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1694117/posts
"Everything in his body that we looked at was clean as a whistle, except for his lungs with the pneumonia," Coles said. "He had no heart disease, he had no cancer, no diabetes and no Alzheimer's."
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Thanks! I didn't remember the title and couldn't find it. I'll bookmark it now.
I had a heart attack during a treadmill test, with a doctor and nurse right there in the room. I was a 47-year old pre-menopausal female in good physician, not overweight, non-smoker.
I told them that I was in distress: cold sweat, clammy feeling, heaviness in my arms. They told me I was doing fine. I actually PASSED the treadmill test. Then the horrific pain started.
All hell broke loose after that. I went into cardiac arrest twice in the ambulance. Thank god for the EMTs - they are my heroes.
I've always wondered...if I'd been a 47-year old MAN.
"It used to happen every month. Now she is on a different heart regulator medicine."
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It sounds like she was NOT imagining things, she really was having heart rhythm irregularities on her previous medication. It's a good thing the doctor FINALLY changed her medication.
self-ping for some good heart advice
"Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. . .It is sunny out today) If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks,
call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. "
====
Thanks for the information. I didn't know this and I am sure many others didn't either and it may save lives, if people recognize the early signs.
I did read about medications that can be adminstered and they dissolve the blood clot and reverse a stroke, but, as you said, the key is that they only work if they are administered within a couple of hours from the time the stroke happened.
****1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.
2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE ****
I had this happen to me back in 1994 after surgery.
I tried to speak but couldn't.
Could not stand up.
Went partially temporary blind.
lost bladder control.
I was back to normal in about 30 minutes.
It is still scarry.
I am now on an increased coumadin dosage.
A heart attack is not always the result of clogged arteries. My wife had a mild one but it was due to her high blood pressure, now controlled. Her arteries were completely clear. She was in cardiac rehab for over a year and I had to fight with the cardiologist to put her on meds necessary to bring it down to where it belonged. Your health is in your own hands. Do not let apathy on the part of medical professionals to put you six fieet under.
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