CAD overview, Angina Flashcards
What is coronary artery disease? What causes it?
heart disease caused by impaired coronary blood flow (impaired blood flow to the heart)
Coronary artery disease is commonly divided into two types of disorders. What are these two types and what diseases fall under each?
1) acute coronary syndrome
- myocardial infarction
- unstable angina
- sudden cardiac death
2) chronic ischemic heart disease
- stable angina
- congestive heart failure
What is angina?
Chest pain from ischemia.
What causes angina?
- atherosclerosis
- vasospasm
- thrombosis
What is the pathophysiology of angina?
- inadequate perfusion
- leads to myocardial ischemia
- causes chest pain
- normal, healthy vessels are able to dilate but atherosclerotic vessels can’t
What are triggers for angina?
- exertion
- emotion
- cold temperature
What is stable angina?
- angina that occurs when there is a fixed plaque = plaque is in intima of the vessel, can’t go anywhere but still causing occlusion
- transient pain
- pain subsides when trigger taken away (relieved with rest)
What is unstable angina?
- angina that occurs when there is an unstable plaque = complicated lesion = plaque has burst and platelets aggregating, forming a thrombus
- platelets also release prostaglandins that cause vasospasm
- severe pain that lasts longer
- not brought on by a trigger
- can occur at rest
What is variant or Prinzmetal’s angina?
- angina from vasospasm of a coronary artery
- can occur at rest or at night
- uncommon
- etiology unknown
What are manifestations of angina?
- chest pain, “squeezing, burning”
- can radiate to left shoulder and arm
How is angina treated?
- avoid trigger
- nitroglycerin (systemic vasodilator… won’t work for MI)
Why is it important to manage angina?
more episodes of angina = increase risk of MI
