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.
great news on your happy ending!
heart disease and high blood pressure in both men and women
can be deadly if not checked by knowledgable specialists.
people really need to be proactive about their own health.
Back in HS I told my friend's girlfriend that Hendrix died because of an overdose of the stuff; said he was hooked on the flavor and they found him with seventeen empty bottles scattered around and orange foam on his lips. She bought it and told everyone else.....yep, she was a blonde.
Thanks for the reply. I'm still abit sore from the procedure. My twisted ankle hurts more than the puncture wound at the groin.
Dna sure does suck sometimes.
As a predictor of sudden cardiac death, research the newly approved and Medicare (and some insurance carriers) reimbursed Microvolt T-Wave Alternans test.
"Sudden cardiac death" does not mean without warning. It means cardiac arrest within an hour of the onset of symptoms. They're arguing that symptoms are occuring more than hour before, in more cases than were thought.
Someone I know quite well does not exactly follow a healthy lifestyle and it is obvious that they will eventually have heart problems or stroke. Every once in a while this person complains of chest pains but it always turns out to be a false alarm. For example a pulled muscle or recent one that was a lung pain related to asthma. I have sometimes wondered if there is something about the chest pain related to heart problems that is more specifically identifiable. This would help the next time this comes up.
Descriptions I have read from people who had heart attacks say things like the pain was like a heavy load of bricks landing on their chest. How quickly did your chest pain come on? Did you have any pain in your arm?
IF YOU ARE HAVING CHEST PAINS CALL 911!
The doctors would rather see 100 nad indegestions over 1 person dead because they thought a heart attack was nothing.
Because I called 911 for my Dad he walked me down the aisle at my wedding and right now is playing with his grandkids.
*** How quickly did your chest pain come on? Did you have any pain in your arm?***
My pains came on after some light work or anticipation of going home from work. Often even before eating.
It felt like something squeezing my heart in a tight grip and getting tighter. The pains radiate out to the back but mine did not go into my left arm or up my neck, I found it could also be brought on by stress without any labor.
The location of my pain was about three inches down on the sternum and one inch to the left.
The only reason I didn't have a heart attack is there were several minor arteries in the area that kept blood (but not enough) flowing.
***My twisted ankle hurts more than the puncture wound at the groin.***
Did they use an angio-seal on your leg? It uses a coallagan plug which is absorbed into the system.
My first angiogram in 1990, to check for a blown heart valve, did not. I had to lay still for 12 hours with a sandbag on my groin. It still leaked and the nurses ganged up on me to get the tape off and reclose the artery.
The angio-seal did away with the sandbag.
They used the coallagan plug but it still leaked some. The nurses were appling pressure and then eventually used a type of C-clamp for 1/2 an hour. Did the trick, but they still left the sandbag on formost of the day.
The first night it felt like I had a stick being driven through my groin. I slept better that night than I did the night before, when they were taking blood every 3 hours.
>>I'll take the heart attack.
My plan is to die of a heart attack after being hugged and congratulated by my children and grandchildren for crossing the finish line and having set a new PR in the Hawaiian Iron Man , in the year 2045, at the age of 85.
I hope those organge thingees you are carrying are not "baby" aspirin. You would have to take several of those to have any effect.
I'm glad it's in "News / Activism" -- it's very useful info and you never know, it may save a few lives.
I'll be printing it out and sharing it with the members of my CERT team next Tuesday.
L
No, the adult dosage.
I'll amen that statement. I have researched my family's history on both sides and I can't find one case of cancer. They all die of heart attacks or strokes.
I have already had one heart attack and find it comforting to know that I likely will go that way. A lingering and painful death by cancer I would rather forego.
I don't take pills for anything. I'll probably pass away from a brain aneurysm compliments of the DNC.
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