Welcome to Northern Heart Hospital’s blog! Today we are discussing coronary artery disease (CAD) and why we should pay extra attention to it.
Did you know that coronary artery disease is the most common of cardiovascular diseases? This is where Northern Heart Hospital, the best heart hospital in Penang comes in! CAD is also known as coronary heart disease, ischemic heart disease and myocardial ischemia. Don’t let the terminology confuse you, it is also simply known as a ‘heart disease’.
This happens when the atherosclerotic plaque builds up in the arteries of the heart causing the reduction of blood flow to the cardiac muscle. So, let’s understand what it does to the body.
When it hurts even a little …
Sometimes you feel something akin to a heartburn, normally after an exercise or emotional stress, that lasts only a few minutes as it improves with sufficient rest. Occasionally, the chest pain or discomfort may travel to your shoulder, arms, back, neck, and to a certain extent, your jaw!
In some cases, you will experience shortness of breath, something you might dismiss as normal post-exercise symptom or stress attack. Post-exercise is termed angina and is caused by the narrowing of the arteries in the heart.
For the ladies, the symptoms may differ from those in males. Most female heart patients report shortness of breath compared to chest pains. Other common symptoms include extreme fatigue, sleep disturbances, and indigestion.
What we fear, is when there are no symptoms at all. This means that in many cases, the first sign could be of a heart attack itself.
When is the right time to schedule a heart check-up?
When your cardiologists or heart specialists suggest ‘early prevention’, they are not kidding! Cardiovascular diseases are no longer old people’s diseases. Many experts encourage adults from as early as 20 years of age to get their heart checked. Following the outcome of your check-up your cardiologists will recommend outine heart check-up every 2 to 4 years based on your lifestyle, family history, and medical requirements.
You are considered a high-risk patient if you have the following risk factors.
1) Family history of coronary artery disease
2) Hypertension
3) Diabetes
4) Smoking
5) High cholesterol
6) Overweight/Obesity
7) Alcohol consumption
Cardiac assessment by a trained cardiologist would be warranted if you have the above risk factors.
How to diagnose coronary artery diseases?
Here are the most common procedures performed to diagnose CAD.
2) An echocardiogram is a type of ultrasound scan conducted to diagnose and monitor heart structure and the surrounding blood vessels. A small probe is used to send out high-frequency sound waves and allows the cardiologist to detect damage from a heart attack and other abnormalities.
4) A coronary angiogram is a special procedure that takes dynamic X-ray images of your heart to identify if your coronary arteries are narrowed or blocked.
Can you treat coronary heart disease?
Once diagnosed with CAD, your heart specialist will recommend lifestyle changes. Other than eating healthily by increasing fibre and protein intake and reducing sugar, fats, and processed food, the best thing to do is to stop smoking and alcohol consumption.
CAD medications may be a combination of several medicines such as cholesterol medicine to lower LDL cholesterol, aspirin to prevent blood clots, beta blockers to control blood pressure, and nitroglycerin to widen the heart arteries. You may also be prescribed calcium channel blockers and ranolazine, instead of beta blockers.
Procedures such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass surgery can be considered if medical therapy fails. During the percutaneous coronary artery intervention, the blocked artery is opened either with a balloon or a stent. This procedure is performed percutaneously either from the groin or the wrist.
As for the coronary artery bypass graft, the cardiologist surgeon will take a vein or artery from other parts of the body to create a new route for the blood to go around a blocked or narrowed heart artery, hence, the name – bypass. This will increase blood flow to the heart.
The most important thing after procedure is to undergo a cardiac rehabilitation programme. During the programme, you will learn more about your heart condition, have access to counselling and physical training that are specifically designed to improve your heart health post-surgery.
Find out if Northern Heart Hospital Penang is accessible to you HERE.
For more information on heart check-ups and treatments, please call +604 217 5588 or schedule an appointment via this form.
References:
- Wikipedia
- NHS UK
- Healthline
- Mayo Clinic