Depending on the level of myocardial damage, age, gender, and the “golden” hour of emergency, a patient with a myocardial infarction who survives death can live about a year to more than 5 years.
Myocardial infarction occurs when the amount of blood supply to the heart muscle decreases, a thrombus appears in the blood vessel, causing the blood vessel that feeds the heart muscle to become blocked. The disease has a high mortality rate if not treated promptly.
MSc.BS.CKII Nguyen Thi Ngoc, Cardiovascular Center, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that myocardial infarction can appear suddenly, warning signs (if any) before that are pain. angina. The pain can occur while sitting and rest and last about 15 minutes, spreading to the back, neck, chin, jaw, shoulders or arms. Patients also have symptoms of fatigue, sweating, nervousness, difficulty breathing, panic or fainting.
In some cases, elderly people, diabetics or women… do not have symptoms of chest pain. They may have symptoms of difficulty breathing, fainting, changes in consciousness, and a drop in blood pressure below 90/60 mmHg. Life expectancy of a person with a myocardial infarction depends on the time of emergency treatment, the degree of myocardial damage, age, gender…
If treated early within 6 hours of symptom onset, timely perfusion and restoration of blood flow to the heart improves the patient’s prognosis. The degree of myocardial damage is high and if complications occur, the risk of death is high. Up to 85% of deaths related to myocardial infarction occur in the elderly group (over 65 years old). Women who have a heart attack have a lower survival rate than men.
Research on 21,180 patients in Iran for about 6 years showed that the survival rate of myocardial infarction patients for about one year was 88%, 3 years was 81%, and 5 years was 78%.
There are 4 time frames for myocardial infarction intervention. In particular, the first 1-2 hours when the patient has chest pain is the “golden hour”. At this time, the myocardium is only slightly damaged, so myocardial reperfusion is effective, limiting myocardial death, reducing mortality and complications.
The “silver hour” is the period of 2-6 hours from the onset of myocardial infarction symptoms. At this time, a certain amount of heart muscle is damaged, saving the heart muscle is less effective.
From 6-12 hours when symptoms appear, it is called “bronze hour”, the patient is at risk of serious complications because the damaged heart muscle will be lost forever.
After 12 hours of angina onset, the success rate of intervention is very low, and the risk of death is high due to widespread myocardial death.
Doctors at the Cardiovascular Center performed revascularization interventions for patients with myocardial infarction, April 29. Image: Tam Anh General Hospital
Many causes lead to myocardial infarction. Most commonly, atherosclerotic plaques in the blood vessels form thrombi, causing sudden blockage of the blood vessels, causing a decrease in blood supply to the myocardium, leading to myocardial necrosis, causing heart failure and sudden death. Some risk factors such as smoking, excessive stress, strenuous work, inflammation or infection such as pneumonia, exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, post-trauma, surgery…
Myocardial infarction causes damage to the heart muscle, which can impair diastolic and systolic function, increasing the risk of arrhythmia. The disease has many complications including abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia, cardiogenic shock, pericarditis, cardiac arrest, and sudden death if not treated promptly. Prevent disease by building a healthy lifestyle, controlling blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood fat. When there are signs of myocardial infarction, the patient should immediately notify relatives and take them to the hospital.
Dr. Ngoc said that there are currently many modern techniques to screen for myocardial infarction such as transthoracic and esophageal echocardiography systems that apply artificial intelligence to survey cardiovascular abnormalities; The “2 in 1” bicycle dynamometer stress echocardiography system helps detect the smallest abnormalities in the heart early. In addition, patients are subjected to biochemical tests. Coronary artery intervention (coronary angiography, stent dilatation, coronary artery bypass surgery) are highly specialized techniques that effectively treat myocardial infarction.