Any pain which occurs in the chest area is considered chest pain. Anyone presenting with new chest pain, or with chest pain that feels different than their usual anginal attacks, should see a physician immediately. People have been taught to see a physician for chest pain because it may be a heart attack. Although angina can cause chest pain and discomfort, heart attack pain is also generally more severe. Many people with angina experience more of a dull discomfort than a pain, while anxiety tends to be more of a pain. The chest pain of angina must be differentiated from pain or discomfort due to indigestion.
The most common symptom is recurring chest pain with a feeling of tightness or pressure in the chest. The chest pain associated with angina pectoris is described as squeezing, pressing, burning, choking, or bursting felt along the sternum. The pain may feel like tightness, heavy pressure, squeezing, or crushing pain. There are different types of chest pains like a sharp pain, dull pain, burning sensation or feeling as if the chest in going to be crushed by a tight pressure. The pain is usually described as a pressure, heaviness, squeezing, burning, or a choking sensation. You may feel pressure, squeezing, burning, or tightness in your chest.
A heart attack or myocardial infarction is caused by blocked blood flow to the heart muscle. Aspirin is known to thin the blood, which helps the heart get more blood if you are, indeed, having a heart attack. The pain is caused by inadequate blood supply to your heart, which leaves your heart deprived of oxygen. When the arteries supplying blood and oxygen to the heart are blocked, the blood flow to the heart muscle is obstructed and chest pain results. Angina is caused by lack of oxygen supply, while in heart attack blood vessels are blocked. When the body requires the heart to pump more blood, the heart muscle is asked to do more work and that can cause it to outstrip its energy supply.
Angina is s sharp pain in the left side of the chest radiating to the shoulders and the neck. Chest pain is usually described as squeezing or burning, substernal in location and radiating to the back, neck, jaw or arms, making it sometimes indistinguishable from cardiac chest pain. Although angina is typically marked by discomfort in the chest, pain can also affect the shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. The pain often radiates to the neck, jaw, arms, back, or even the teeth. Both can be marked by pain, numbness, or tingling in the neck, shoulders, arms, and jaw. The pain may spread beyond the chest to the upper body, back, arms, jaw or abdomen.
The symptoms of stable angina are relieved with rest while it is otherwise with unstable angina. There are several different types of angina, including stable angina, unstable angina and variant angina. Variant angina is a rare form of angina, which can be more severe than other forms. Most stable angina pains develop into unstable angina if ignored. One of the well-known sub classes of angina are like Bowelgina, also called abdominal angina. Variant angina is rare and accounts for only about 2% of cases of angina.
The rupture of plaques in cause a blood clot in the cardiac arteries thereby substantially reducing the blood flow to the heart muscle. As the coronary artery becomes narrowed, the blood supply to the heart is diminished. CAD happens when a sticky substance called plaque builds up in the arteries that supply blood to the heart, reducing blood flow. Reduced blood flow may be the result of plaque in the arteries, spasms in the arteries, or damaged or diseased artery walls. The passageway for blood through the arteries gets narrower and less blood can flow through the arteries. Blood supply to the heart muscle is typically reduced by atherosclerosis, the build-up of fatty plaque in the arteries that supply the heart.
A heart attack can cause permanent damage to your heart. Certain heart enzymes slowly leak out into your blood if your heart has been damaged by a heart attack. Where a heart attack threatens to lead to permanent damage to your heart muscle an angina attack is not. A scarred heart cannot pump blood as efficiently as a normal heart, and can lead to heart failure. An episode of angina is not an actual heart attack, but rather pain that results from the heart muscle temporarily receiving too little blood. A heart attack results from a blockage in a coronary artery which causes permanent damage to the heart muscle.
