:: 2000 - 2006

Welcome to our Heart Attack Warning Signs Alert!

We have selected articles which provide information on heart attack warning signs. We will continue to add more articles to this alert (from the year 2000).

AHA - Heart Attack Symptoms & Warning Signs "If you think you're having a heart attack, call 9-1-1 or your emergency medical system immediately. Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — the "movie heart attack," where no one doubts what's happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening: Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. Shortness of breath. May occur with or without chest discomfort. Other signs: These may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain."

Diagnosing the Cause of Chest Pain (Am Fam Physician 2005) "Chest pain presents a diagnostic challenge in outpatient family medicine. Noncardiac causes are common, but it is important not to overlook serious conditions such as an acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism, or pneumonia. In addition to a thorough history and physical examination, most patients should have a chest radiograph and an electrocardiogram. Patients with chest pain that is predictably exertional, with electrocardiogram abnormalities, or with cardiac risk factors should be evaluated further with measurement of troponin levels and cardiac stress testing. … Although some patients with chest pain have heart failure, this is unlikely in the absence of dyspnea; a brain natriuretic peptide level measurement can clarify the diagnosis. Pain reproducible by palpation is more likely to be musculoskeletal than ischemic. Chest pain also may be associated with panic disorder … Chest pain is the chief complaint in about 1 to 2 percent of outpatient visits, and although the cause is often noncardiac, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States.2 Thus, distinguishing between serious and benign causes of chest pain is imperative, and diagnostic and prognostic questions are important in making this determination."

[Complications of an unrecognized myocardial infarction] (Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2005) "Patients with an untreated myocardial infarction may present with serious late complications. … Around one-third of patients who have a myocardial infarction do not have chest pain but experience shortness of breath, autonomic nervous symptoms (sweating, nausea, vomiting), extreme and inexplicable tiredness and fainting. These atypical symptoms should suggest myocardial infarction. In order to avoid high morbidity and death from complications such as arrhythmias, heart failure, rupture and aneurysm formation it is important that a patient who has had a myocardial infarction should be treated as soon as possible, preferably by reperfusion therapy."

AHA - Part 3: Overview of CPR (2005)

NGC - Diagnosis and treatment of chest pain and acute coronary syndrome (ACS). (2004)

NGC - Heart failure in adults. (2005)

NGC - Inpatient management of heart failure. (2004)

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