Difference between a heart attack, cardiac arrest, and stroke?
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Heart attack: blocked blood flow in heart, can kill parts of heart
Cardiac arrest: heart stopped, can be caused by many things – including above
Stroke: blocked blood flow in brain, can kill parts of brain
As heart feeds brain and brain controls heart, a failure in one can feed back into the other
Edit: coming back late, but so anyone reading this late as well isn’t misled, as many commenters pointed out strokes can be caused by bleeds as well (hemorrhagic stroke) as opposed to an “obstacle” blocking the flow like a blood clot. The brain also doesn’t have much *direct* influence on the heart. Check replies for more info.
An _Infarction_ is when there’s an obstacle (a clot, a hemorrhage or other things) preventing blood from carrying oxygen to a tissue, leading to cell death. It can happen anywhere in the body, but when it happens to the heart, the heart stops and you get a myocardial infarction also known as a heart attack. If it happens to the brain, part of the brain dies and that’s what a stroke is.
Cardiac arrest is just the generic term for when the heart stops, it could be due to a myocardial infarction but also a thousand other things.
A cardiac arrest is any condition where your heart is not pumping blood. There are lots of kinds, but they all result in death without treatment. The most common and treatable kind is because of a heart attack (it stops beating because the muscle has run out of energy or simply died off), but even under the best circumstances the survival rate is *only* 80%-ish (specifically, if it’s witnessed by a paramedic). Across all of them, around 90% or more of cardiac arrest victims die.
A heart attack is an event that injures the heart. The most common one by far involves a blood vessel that supplies the heart being blocked by a clot or by a ‘plaque’ (fatty stuff on the vessel walls), but there are other types as well, like one that happens because of another serious illness. Heart attack is the single most common cause of cardiac arrest.
A stroke is essentially a heart attack of the brain. They’re most commonly caused by a fat or clot blockage of a blood vessel, but occasionally also happen when a vessel tears and the person bleeds into their skull. This kills brain cells, which can leave permanent problems like being unable to move or speak normally.
Edit: kind of a random downvote, don’t you think?
Blood flow = good
No blood flow = area dies
Heart attack = no blood flow to certain parts of heart
Stroke = no blood flow to certain parts of brain
Cardiac arrest = heart stopped. Has numerous causes.
Ever notice that when non-medical people mention a heart attack (or stroke, for that matter), they always say “massive’ heart attack. (Or tornado et al).
Heart attack — not getting oxygen to the heart
Stroke — not getting oxygen to the brain (can be bleed, block, spasm, etc)
Cardiac arrest — heart stopped; not getting oxygen anywhere.
Heart attack: specific part of artery feeding heart is blocked, damaging a small part of heart muscle
Cardiac arrest: the electrical circuit that keeps a consistent heart beat is interrupted due to many reasons, heart can’t fill or pump blood
Stroke: for many reasons oxygen can’t reach the brain and so brain tissue becomes damaged/dies and causes symptoms
Fun fact: a blood clot in the deep veins of the leg can dislodge and flow to the heart or the brain where it blocks small arteries and can cause a heart attack and/or stroke.
Heart attack: blockage in arteries prevents blood from delivering oxygen and nutrients. Heart muscle will die in time
Cardiac arrest: heart stops beating effectively to sustain life. Could be cause by electrical issues in the heart, heart attack, environment such as drugs or chemicals, etc
Stroke: blood flow has stopped due to blockage in blood vessels or due to bleeding of the blood vessels.
Heart failure: damages to muscle and structure has made in no longer effective in pumping
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**Heart attack = Myocardial infarction = Cardiac muscle death**
Causes:
Blood clot and/or plaque blockage of coronary artery causing heart muscle to die from lack of oxygen.
Injury such as when Dick Cheney shot that lawyer in the heart. In this case it caused some heart muscle death, not sure if the shot (BB) lodged in a coronary artery, most likely just direct muscle injury.
Severe anemia such as when there is a large loss of blood such as a gunshot wound.
Excess cardiac muscle O2 demand such as from use of cocaine or methamphetamine.
**Cardiac arrest = cessation of heart muscle action = asystole or ventricular fibrillation**
Causes:
Abnormal conduction in the signal pathway
Other causes I’m not sure of.
**Stroke**
Causes:
Hemorrhagic type: There is a bleed inside the skull causing a buildup of blood in the skull and displacing the brain tissue causing brain tissue death.
Occlusive type: Blood flow is blocked to the brain tissue due to blood clot or plaque blockage in a cerebral artery.
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