What's the difference between a heart spasm and a heart attack?!
Question: If you have medical background, could you answer this?
i know someone who was diagnosed with 2 spasms within 24 hours. at first, the ER doc called it a HA. Then, after an emergency cath, then an angio because he was on the table, they couldn't find any reason for the HA's and called them spasms. What is the difference? He still has 2 dead spots on his heart now. There wasn't anything congenital, either. So is this just a term they used because they can't find the cause?
Answers: If you have medical background, could you answer this?
i know someone who was diagnosed with 2 spasms within 24 hours. at first, the ER doc called it a HA. Then, after an emergency cath, then an angio because he was on the table, they couldn't find any reason for the HA's and called them spasms. What is the difference? He still has 2 dead spots on his heart now. There wasn't anything congenital, either. So is this just a term they used because they can't find the cause?
Prinzmetal's angina (aka coronary artery spasm) often mimics the blockage from coronary artery disease. This happens when a normally healthy coronary artery suddenly contracts and constricts its own blood flow (sort of like your leg getting a cramp or charlie horse). When this occurs, less oxygenated blood is allowed through that artery, the heart muscle tissue beyond the point of the spasm becomes deprived. A patient experiencing this would feel the angina (aka chest pain) as if he were having a real heart attack.
Two things to consider here:
Often, people who have Prinzmetal'a Angina arrive in the ER after the episode is over, and unless the spasms occur while the cardiogram is being done, it usually goes undetected. However, if the spasms are severe enough and occur right during the recording of the cardiogram, the EKG will look identical to that of someone who is having a heart attack.
Further, even though there was no clot to balloon open (which was what they had intended by bringing him to the cath lab for the angio) if the spasms are severe and last long enough, or if there was some underlying plaque formation to begin with, the patient may very well suffer a real heart attack as the cardiac muscle remains deprived of oxygen.
Good luck.
Ralph