Shoulder and back pain hanging surgery, found that it was a heart attack to blame
On the day of the attack, Mr. Zhang went to work as usual, near the end of the day, he felt a sudden pain in the back of the shoulder, very uncomfortable, he drove straight to the hospital, and in the hospital outpatient registered spine surgery, I thought the doctor check, prescribe some drugs, massage at home will be fine, did not expect the doctor’s diagnosis surprised him. It turned out that Mr. Zhang registered in the doctor’s consultation, the spine surgeon perceived that Mr. Zhang’s cause does not seem to be cervical spine disease, so an extra eye let Mr. Zhang to do an electrocardiogram, the results found that Mr. Zhang’s electrocardiogram suggests myocardial infarction, it was immediately transferred to cardiovascular medicine. The doctor drew blood and found that Mr. Zhang’s cardiac enzyme index greatly exceeded the normal level and fully met the diagnostic criteria in acute heart attack. At that time, Mr. Zhang did not feel chest tightness and chest pain, but when reminded by the doctor, he remembered that he had actually had a transient (“transient” means that a clinical symptom or sign appears once or several times in a short period of time and disappears quickly) shoulder and back pain before, but never thought it could be a heart problem. When the cardiovascular physician performed an emergency coronary angiogram, he found that the proximal segment of the anterior descending branch was completely occluded, suggesting the beginning of massive myocardial necrosis, so he immediately opened the occluded vessel and implanted a cardiac stent. After the doctors’ efforts, Mr. Zhang was finally released from life-threatening conditions.
Analysis
Myocardial infarction has atypical symptoms
In fact, there are few cases like Mr. Zhang who had pain in parts that seemingly have nothing to do with the heart and was eventually examined for heart failure. A 70-year-old gentleman in Huadu District was also admitted to the local hospital because of abdominal pain, and the emergency physician was only concerned about his digestive tract disease, not wanting the patient to suddenly go into cardiac arrest and die of ineffective resuscitation. The final autopsy found that the patient died of an acute heart attack with complete occlusion of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery.
”This case above actually tells us a lesson, don’t think that your heart is safe and sound if you don’t have typical symptoms such as chest tightness and chest pain.” Professor Zhou Tao of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University pointed out that the atypical symptoms of acute heart attack may also be toothache, abdominal pain, shoulder and back pain, etc. The occurrence of myocardial infarction may also be highlighted by nausea and vomiting, for which doctors are prone to misdiagnose, resulting in catastrophic consequences.
”Why does an apparently acute heart attack exhibit pain that is seemingly unrelated to the heart? This is because the heart is innervated by both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, and these nerves innervate the heart as well as other organs”, explained Director Zhou Tao, “The body reaction caused by myocardial infarction is holistic, so it will cause pain in other parts, which is called radiating pain in medical terms. Therefore, heart problems are accompanied by atypical symptoms such as toothache, tightness in the throat and abdominal pain”.
Director Zhou Tao also pointed out that common triggers of myocardial infarction, such as overexertion, overeating, prolonged bed rest, sudden external mental stimulation, mental stress, etc., can increase the risk of myocardial infarction, and people at high risk of coronary heart disease should avoid the stimulation and influence of these factors as much as possible.
Heart problems can be screened by special tests
Director Zhou Tao introduced, although myocardial infarction is a sudden disease, but the onset without any signs before is very rare, some people will appear chest tightness, black haze (black in front of the eyes but soon back to normal), tightness in the throat and so on, these symptoms can sometimes disappear on their own after rest, but if the condition occurs frequently, it should not be careless. Daily physical examinations are helpful in screening for general diseases, but they are limited in detecting heart diseases, and so is the electrocardiogram, because when cardiovascular diseases do not occur, the results of the electrocardiogram may be normal, and some people may even have no abnormalities in the electrocardiogram when they have chest tightness and chest pain. Therefore, Director Zhou Tao suggests that when one or two ECG findings are not problematic and the body does have unexplained symptoms, dynamic ECG, exercise panel and further tests of a specialist nature including nuclear scan, coronary CT A or even coronary angiography can be done if necessary.
Warnings
Two hours after the onset of myocardial infarction is the prime time for treatment
So how to detect myocardial infarction early and seize the golden time for rescue? Director Zhou Tao reminds that myocardial infarction can be detected early through the following “signs”: 1.
1. The pain in the precordial region is expressed as a squeezing sensation, and the degree is significantly worse than before.
2, the duration of pain is significantly longer than before (more than 30 minutes);
3. The pain is not relieved by nitroglycerin, quick-acting heart pills and rest;
4, accompanied by dizziness, black haze, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and other symptoms;
5, accompanied by radioactive pain (such as shoulder and back pain, left upper limb numbness, jaw pain, etc.).
Generally speaking, the presence of the above “signs” should be highly suspected of myocardial infarction.
When a myocardial infarction occurs, the patient’s family should first call 120, if the family has heart pills, nitroglycerin, oxygen machines, etc. can first be used for treatment, cardiac compressions and other conventional first aid common sense at this time can also be useful. When you arrive at the hospital, you can go directly to the green channel for emergency treatment and coronary intervention (PCI) to open the occluded blood vessels, restore blood supply to the heart muscle and save the dying heart muscle. Generally speaking 90 minutes to 120 minutes is the prime time to save patients with myocardial infarction attack.