What Is Angina?
Angina is chest pain that happens because there isn’t enough blood going to part of your heart. It may be feeling like a heart attack, with pressure or squeezing in your chest. It’s somehow called angina or ischemic chest pain.
It’s a major symptom of heart disease, and it can happens when something blocks your arteries or there’s not enough blood flow in the arteries that bring oxygen-rich blood to your heart normally. It generally lasts a few minutes, and it goes away when you rest.
Angina usually goes away quickly in some cases. Still, it can be a sign of a life-threatening heart diseases. It’s important to find out what’s the reason and what you can do to evade a heart attack.
Stable angina. This is the most common. Physical activity or stress can trigger it. It usually lasts a few minutes, and it goes away when you rest. It cannot be a heart attack, but it can be a sign that you’re more likely to have one. Tell your doctor if this happens to you.
Unstable angina. You can have this though you’re at rest or not very active. The pain can be stronger and long-lasting, and it may come back again and again. It can be indication that you’re about to have a heart attack, so see a doctor right away.
Microvascular angina. you may have chest pain but no coronary artery blockage. Instead, it occurs because your smallest coronary arteries aren’t working the way they should, so your heart doesn’t contract the blood it needs. The chest pain usually continues more than 10 minutes. This type is found more common in women.
Prinzmetal’s angina (variant angina). This type is rare. It might chance at night while you’re sleeping or resting. Your heart arteries suddenly tighten or narrow. It can root a lot of pain, and you should get it treated.
Angina Symptoms
Chest pain is main symptom, but it affects people differently. You may have:
- Aching
- Burning
- Discomfort
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Feeling of fullness in your chest
- Feeling of heaviness or pressure
- Upset stomach or vomiting
- Shortness of breath
- Squeezing
- Sweating
you might get an aching or burning for heartburn or gas.
You’re expected to have pain behind your breastbone, which can lead to your shoulders, arms, neck, throat, jaw, or back.
Stable angina frequently gets better with rest. Unstable angina may not better, and it could get worse often. It’s an emergency state that needs medical help right away.
Angina Causes
Angina usually happens because of heart disease. A fatty matter called plaque builds up in your arteries, blocking blood flow to your heart muscle. This services your heart to work with less oxygen. That causes pain. You might also have blood clots in the arteries of your heart, which can cause heart attacks.
Less common causes of chest pain include:
- A blockage in a major artery of your lungs (pulmonary embolism)
- An enlarged or thickened heart (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy)
- Narrowing of a valve in the main part of your heart (aortic stenosis)
- Swelling of the sac around your heart (pericarditis)
- Tearing in the wall of your aorta, the largest artery in your body (aortic dissection)
Angina Risk Factors
Some things about you or your lifestyle could cause you at higher risk of angina, including:
- Older age
- Family history of heart disease
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Stress
- Using tobacco
- Not getting enough exercise
Angina Diagnosis
Your doctor will do a physical exam and ask about your symptoms, risk factors, and family history. They might need to do tests including:
- EKG. This test procedures your heart’s electrical activity and rhythm.
- Stress test. This checks how your heart is working while you exercise.
- Blood tests. Your doctor will check for proteins called troponins. Lots of them are unconfined when your heart muscle is damaged, as in a heart attack. Your doctor may also do more general tests like a metabolic panel or complete blood count (CBC).
- Imaging tests. X-rays can rule out other things that might be causing your chest pain, like lung conditions. Echocardiograms and CT and MRI scans can create images of your heart to help your doctor to diagnose problems.
- Cardiac catheterization. Your doctor inserts a long, thin tube into an artery in your leg and threads it up to your heart to check your blood flow and pressure.
- Coronary angiography. Doctor used to inject dye into the blood vessels of your heart. The dye displays on an X-ray, by creating an image of your blood vessels. They may do this procedure during cardiac catheterization.
Angina Treatment
Your treatment depends on how much damage found there in your heart. For people with mild angina, medicine and lifestyle changes can frequently help their blood flow better and control their symptoms.
Cardiac procedures
If meds aren’t found enough, you might be need to have blocked arteries opened with a medical procedure or surgery. This could be:
Angioplasty/stenting. The doctor threads a tiny tube, with a balloon inside, over a blood vessel and up to your heart. Then, they inflate the balloon inside the narrowed artery to broaden it and reestablish blood flow. They will insert a small tube called a stent inside your artery to help keep it remain open. The stent is lasting and usually made of metal. It can also be made of a material that your body engrosses over time. Some stents also might have medicine that helps keep your artery from getting blocked again.
The procedure typically takes less than 2 hours. You’ll probably stay overnight at the hospital.
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), or bypass surgery. Surgeon takes healthy arteries or veins from another part of your body and uses them to go around the blocked or narrowed blood vessels in the heart.
You could be expected to stay in the hospital about a week after you have this. You’ll be in the intensive care unit for a day or more days while nurses and doctors keep a close eye on your heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels. You’ll then move to a regular room to recover later on.
EECP Therapy:
Enhanced external counterpulsation (known as EECP) is an alternate solution to relieve your angina when all other treatments have failed or aren’t right for you. It can help your blood vessels make a natural bypass around narrowed or blocked arteries in the heart that cause your chest pain.
How It Works
EECP treatment uses three blood pressure cuffs on both legs to gently, but firmly, compress the blood vessels there to boost up blood flow to your heart. Each wave is timed to your heartbeat. So more blood goes there when it’s relaxing while pumping.
When your heart pumps again, pressure is released side by side right away. This procedure lets blood be pumped more easily.
EECP may help some small blood vessels in your heart to open. In this way they may give more blood flow to your heart muscle. This helps to ease your chest pain.
What to Expect
EECP isn’t invasive. It’s also an outpatient therapy.
Patient lie down on a bed in a treatment room for therapy. Three electrodes are placed at your chest and connected to an electrocardiograph. That displays your heart’s rhythm as Pulse rate. Blood pressure is also tracked by the doctor.
A set of cuffs is enfolded around your calves, thighs, and buttocks. They attach to air hoses that connect to valves that inflate and deflate the cuffs with pressure.
You’ll feel compression upward from your calves to thighs to buttocks while the cuffs inflate and deflate. Then pressure will go down as they deflate. It’s all in the same time with your heartbeat and blood pressure.
How Often Are Treatments Given?
If you’re acknowledged for EECP treatment, you’ll have 35 hours of therapy. It’s given 1hr a day, 5 days a week, for 7 weeks.
Am I a Candidate?
You may be if you:
- Have chronic stable chest pain
- Aren’t aided by nitrates, calcium channel blockers, and beta-blockers
- Is a candidate for invasive procedures, like bypass surgery, angioplasty, or stenting?
Studies have shown many benefits for people getting EECP, including:
- Less need for anti-anginal medicine
- Fewer symptoms
- Ability to be more active without symptoms
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