A heart attack (also known as a myocardial infarction) is the death of heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot.
If blood flow is not restored to the heart muscle within 20 to 40 minutes, irreversible death of the heart muscle will begin to occur. Muscle continues to die for six to eight hours.
An e-mail message circulated in 2009 with titles like "HEART ATTACK & ASPRIN DO NOT LIE DOWN" and "Why keep aspirin by your bedside?" tells you to take aspirin and do not lie down when you get symptoms of a heart atack.
Aspirin is good advice. It prevents blood platelets from sticking together.
Some of the e-mails also claim aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life".
It's pain-killing and inflammation-countering properties actually have a much shorter half-life (from 3-9 hours depending on the dosage [500mg - 2 g]), but the effect on blood's platelets lasts about 7-10 days.
As to the lying down advice, there is no evidence that your outcome is affected by lying down or remaining upright.
Terms:
- Myocardial Infarction (MI)
- Heart atack
- Angine pectoris
- Chest pain. Stable angina refers to the more common understanding of angina related to myocardial ischemia.
Unstable angina may occur unpredictably at rest which may be a serious indicator of an impending heart attack.
- ischemia
- a restriction in blood supply
- NSTEMI - Non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
- Acute ischaemia of heart tissue sufficient to cause tissue damage where there is no ST-segment elevation on electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings.
- Arrhythmia -
- Any variation from the normal rhythm of the heart beat (e.g., sinus arrhythmia, premature beat, heart block, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, pulsus alternans, and paroxysmal tachycardia).
Glossary - Thrombosis Adviser
Links:
Heart Attack, Stroke and Cardiac Arrest Warning Signs
Heart attack symptoms: Know what signals a medical emergency - MayoClinic.com
last updated 19 Oct 2009
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