Cardiology

Research finds preventive angioplasty does not improve prognosis

For heart attack patients, treating only the coronary artery that caused the infarction works just as well as preventive balloon dilation of the other coronary arteries, according to a new large study by researchers at Karolinska ...

Cardiology

Sudden chest pain: What is angina pectoris?

That feeling of crushing pain in your chest can be a medical emergency, but it can also be angina pectoris, or "stable angina"—a symptom of coronary heart disease that can be managed with medication.

Health

Heart health and the dangers of shoveling snow

Shoveling and digging out after a heavy snowfall can be a good workout for most people; but for those with heart disease, shoveling is best left for others to do.

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Angina pectoris, commonly known as angina, is chest pain due to ischemia (a lack of blood, thus a lack of oxygen supply and waste removal) of the heart muscle, generally due to obstruction or spasm of the coronary arteries (the heart's blood vessels). Coronary artery disease, the main cause of angina, is due to atherosclerosis of the cardiac arteries. The term derives from the Latin angina ("infection of the throat") from the Greek ἀγχόνη ankhonē ("strangling"), and the Latin pectus ("chest"), and can therefore be translated as "a strangling feeling in the chest".

There is a weak relationship between severity of pain and degree of oxygen deprivation in the heart muscle (i.e., there can be severe pain with little or no risk of a heart attack, and a heart attack can occur without pain).

Worsening ("crescendo") angina attacks, sudden-onset angina at rest, and angina lasting more than 15 minutes are symptoms of unstable angina (usually grouped with similar conditions as the acute coronary syndrome). As these may herald myocardial infarction (a heart attack), they require urgent medical attention and are generally treated as a presumed heart attack.

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