Why are some heart attacks called “massive?” What constitutes a massive heart attack as opposed to a normal one?
In: Biology
Your heart has arteries leaving it to pump blood around the body. A mild heart attack could be something where an artery is narrowed, causing damage to a small part of the heart (or not at all). A massive heart attack, by contrast, could be a full blockage of the artery by a blood clot. This can cause part of the heart to stop pumping or be severely damaged.
A heart attack is when parts of the heart muscle stop getting enough blood. Without enough blood to muscles, the heart will stop beating properly. If you see medical treatment soon enough, the damage can be limited. Although mild, they can still be serious and have negative long-term effects.
A massive heart attack is when a much larger portion of the heart muscle stop getting blood, or parts of the heart go without blood for a longer time (causing more damage). This could be due to a major coronary artery getting clogged up, thus a lot less blood feeds the heart. With a massive heart attack, there is much greater chance of going into cardiac arrest, which is the technical way of saying dropping dead.
If you define heart attack, an ischemic attack, as damaging heart muscle due to lack of blood flow, then some are far more serious than others. The ‘massive’ heart attack is usually referring too the total occlusion of the descending left anterior artery of the heart that completely blocks the flow of blood to the side of the heart responsible for pumping blood around the body. Someone suffering this condition needs to be treated right away.
Some heart attacks will hapoen where a less critical blood vessel is partially occluded and heart muscle starts dying but not extremely rapidly. You still need to plumb that out or give a thrombolytic but you will likely survive to tell the tale.
Ischemic means you are blocking blood flow, and oxygen, from getting to someplace important. You can have ischemic episodes, like in the brain (a stroke) or basically anywhere in the body. For example, ischemic bowel.
It depends upon the amount of the heart affected. With a “massive” heart attack a significant amount of the heart is affected and dies, leading to potential heart failure.
With a “normal” heart attack a portion of the heart has died but the heart can otherwise cope.
It should be noted that there is no part or volume of my heart that I would willingly let die. All heart attacks are bad.
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