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Apart from chest pain, other symptoms that accompany Ischemic Heart Disease include back pain, pressure in the chest area, shortness of breath, and extreme fatigue. Pain from angina is usually known to radiate down a person’s left arm, jaw and back. This type of pain is worsened by any form of exercise, but relieved by periods of rest. Usually the pain may be accompanied by excessive sweating.
Other signs that accompany ischemia include obesity, thyroid and vascular disease, anemia, and tendon xanthomas, a thickening in the Achilles tendon.
Ischemia Heart Disease may also result in sudden death, also known as a massive heart attack. Nearly 250,000 people succumb to sudden cardiac death each year. This fatal condition is caused by ventricular fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm that renders the heart unable to contract, resulting in a cessation of blood flow to the brain as well as other vital organs of the body. Unless immediate CPR is performed or electric shock delivered via a defibrillator, a person suffering from this condition is likely to die.
The doctor will subject the patient to an exercise stress test while the patient is wearing a Holter monitory. This battery-operated tape recorder is a portable electrocardiogram that reads a person’s heart movements for a period of 24 to 48 hours in order to detect ischemia.
The doctor may also order an echocardiogram to check for any abnormalities in the heart’s chambers and to assess the efficiency of the heart’s pumping action. Myocardial perfusion scanning is also useful in diagnosing ischemia, as is having a coronary angiogram taken to accurately pinpoint the extent and location within the coronary arteries that experience hardening and narrowing.
One other diagnostic tool that makes use of imaging technology is nuclear myocardial imaging, which utilizes radioactive tracers to monitor the journey of the blood towards the heart muscle.
There are various therapies geared at treating Ischemic Heart Disease. Doctors may describe nitrates that work to dilate coronary arteries that have narrowed. When placed under the tongue, they can relieve chest pain in minutes. Other medications, such as Isosorbide Mononitrate and Isosorbide Dinitrate are prophylactics that prevent the occurrence of pain.
Pain relief may also be achieved my reducing the demand for oxygen and decreasing a person’s heart rate through the use of Beta-blockers. Calcium channel antagonists are able to dilate constricted blood vessels, as well as lower a person’s excitability, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Daily aspirin intake is known to thin the blood and prevent platelets from forming into blood clots.
Surgery is a last resort option if medical therapy has failed to relieve a person’s ischemia symptoms. This is particularly true if an angiogram result reveals significant levels of blockage in the blood vessels. These surgical procedures include Coronary Angioplasty, a process of dilating a congested blood vessel by inflating a balloon within the blood vessel itself. Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, meanwhile, involves replacing part of a deceased artery with soft tissue grafted from the patient’s body.
A patient who has been diagnosed with Ischemic Heart Disease will need to make certain lifestyle changes in order to ward off symptoms of ischemia. These lifestyle changes will include avoiding stress, smoking, a high fat diet, and a sedentary lifestyle.
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