In July 2023, American basketball star Bronny James collapsed on the court during practice and was taken to the hospital. The 18-year-old athlete, the son of Los Angeles Lakers veteran LeBron James, Cardiac arrest.
Many media outlets have described this event asHeart attack” or used these terms interchangeably.
Cardiac arrest and heart attack are different, but overlapping, concepts related to the heart.
With some background knowledge How the Heart Worksyou’ll see how they differ and how they relate.
Understanding the Mind
The heart is a muscle that acts as a pump by contracting, sending blood containing oxygen and nutrients to all the tissues of the body.
To function effectively as a pump, the heart muscle needs to receive blood from the coronary arteries. When the coronary arteries are blocked, the heart muscle cannot get the blood it needs.
This can cause heart muscle to become damaged or die, preventing the heart from functioning properly.
Heart attack or cardiac arrest?
Simply put, a heart attack (technically called a myocardial infarction) means damage or death of the heart muscle.
Cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac arrest, is a condition in which the heart stops beating, or in other words, stops functioning as an effective pump.
In other words, they both involve the heart not working properly, but for different reasons, and one can cause the other, as we’ll explain later.
Why does this happen? Who is at risk?
A heart attack is usually caused by a blockage in the coronary arteries – this is sometimes called coronary artery disease, but in Australia we tend to call it ischaemic heart disease.
The root cause of approx. 75% of people This is a process called ArteriosclerosisThis is where fatty and fibrous tissue builds up in the walls of your coronary arteries, forming plaque, which can block blood vessels and, in some cases, lead to the formation of a blood clot.
Atherosclerosis is a long-term, insidious process that can affect anyone and involves many risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diet, Diabetesstress, and genes are all thought to play a role in this plaque-forming process.
Other causes of a heart attack include spasm of the coronary arteries (causing constriction), chest trauma, or other factors that reduce blood flow to the heart muscle.
Whatever the cause, when blood flow through these vessels is blocked or reduced, the heart muscle may not receive enough oxygen and nutrients, which can cause heart muscle cells to become damaged or die.
However, cardiac arrest is the result of irregular heartbeats that make it difficult for the heart to pump blood efficiently around the body. These irregular heartbeats are commonly caused by: Electrical failure They are found in the heart. There are four different types:
- Ventricular tachycardia: An abnormal heart rhythm with a heart rate greater than 1000 rpm. 100 times per minute (A normal adult resting heart rate is usually 60 to 90 beats per minute.) This fast heart rate prevents the heart from filling with blood and pumping it properly.
- Ventricular fibrillation: The heart quivers or “fibrillates” instead of beating regularly, resembling a bag of worms, causing irregular heartbeats of more than 300 beats per minute.
- Pulseless Electrical Activity: occurs when the heart muscle cannot generate enough pumping force after electrical stimulation, resulting in the absence of a pulse.
- Asystole: The typical flat heart rhythm commonly seen in movies, indicating the absence of electrical activity in the heart.
Cardiac arrest can result from a variety of underlying conditions, both cardiac and non-cardiac, including drowning, trauma, choking, electrocution, and drug overdose. Congenital heart diseaseHe was born with a heart condition.
However, among the many causes of cardiac arrest, ischemic heart disease, such as heart attack, stands out as the most common cause. 70% In all cases.
So how does a heart attack cause cardiac arrest? You remember that during a heart attack, the heart muscle can become damaged or even die. This damaged or dead tissue can interfere with the heart’s ability to conduct electrical signals, increasing the risk of developing arrhythmias and potentially causing cardiac arrest.
So, although a heart attack is a common cause of cardiac arrest, cardiac arrest does not usually cause a heart attack.
What do they look like?
Since cardiac arrest results in a sudden loss of the heart’s pumping function, the most common sign and symptom is a sudden loss of heartbeat function. AwarenessThe pulse and heart stop, breathing stops, and the skin becomes pale or bluish.
However, common signs and symptoms of a heart attack include chest pain or discomfort, which may affect other parts of the body such as the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach, as well as shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness, paleness and sweating.
What is the key message?
Although heart attack and cardiac arrest are both heart-related conditions, their mechanisms and outcomes are different.
A heart attack is like a clogged pipe that supplies water to your home, but cardiac arrest is like an electrical failure in your home’s wiring.
Although different in nature, both conditions can have serious consequences and require immediate medical attention.
Michael TodorovicAssociate Professor of Medicine, Bond University and Matthew BurtonSenior Lecturer, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Griffith University
This article is reprinted from conversation Published under a Creative Commons license. Original article.
