Heart Angina – Is it the same as Heart Attack?
Have you heard the terms heart attack and angina, and thought that they were interchangeable terms? This is not the case. They are both types of heart disease that result from diseased heart (coronary) arteries, but differ in what happens in those arteries. After reading this, you should be able to tell someone how heart attack and angina differ.
To begin, it is useful to learn a bit about the heart’s structure. This will help you in learning the differences between angina and heart attack. Think of the heart as made up of muscular walls, but consisting of empty space inside the walls. In addition, there is another wall that passes somewhat vertically down the heart. It is named the septum, and divides the heart into the right side and the left side. Blood that passes through the left side of the heart contains oxygen. However, blood that passes through the right side does not carry oxygen.
The right and left sides are further separated into two parts on each side. The tops chambers are called the atria, and the bottom chambers are called the ventricles. Blood returns from blood vessels in the body and enters the right atrium. Because it has just returned from providing the body with oxygen, when blood returns to the right atrium, it is low in oxygen. It then passes through to the right ventricle, and the right ventricle then pumps the blood to the lungs, where it becomes oxygenated. This oxygen-rich blood then returns to the heart through the left atrium, passes through to the left ventricle where it is pumped to the rest of the body and supplies your tissues and organs with oxygen.
So how does your heart get oxygen too? It gets the vital oxygen from its own set of arteries called coronary arteries. They are located on the surface of the heart.
In both heart attack and angina, the coronary arteries have become narrowed usually due to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a fatty build-up that occurs within the walls of the arteries.
Angina occurs when blood that is passing through the coronary arteries is reduced for a short period of time. This means that the appropriate amount of oxygen is not able to get to the heart during this time, but it is only temporary. Angina is not the same as heart attack. Sometimes people who have angina have had a previous heart attack, but often they have not had one at all. Angina means that your heart is not working as it should, and it is giving you a sign of this. You will notice angina come on during times of psychological or physical stress or when working in extreme temperatures.
Heart attack is different in that it involves full blockage of at least one coronary artery, which results in no oxygen getting to that part of the heart at all. Without oxygen getting to the heart, it can be damaged.
In conclusion, angina and heart attack is not the same thing. They both involve the arteries of the heart that supply it with oxygen, but they are still two different types of heart disease.