CHD, MI and embolism Flashcards
How does coronary artery disease present?
- Sudden cardiac death
- Acute coronary syndrome
Acute MI
Unstable angina - Stable angina pectoris
- Heart failure
- Arrhythmia
What two main categories does sudden onset chest pain fall under?
- MI
- Progressive unstable angina
What are the consequences of CAD?
- Damage of the heart muscle leading to heart failure (cannot pump)
- if there is scar tissue formation within the myocardium then this is an important substrate for the development of arrhythmia which leads to sudden cardiac death
Describe the epidemiology of CVD?
- worldwide
- mortality
- death number worldwide
- women?
- age?
- number one cause of death worldwide
- leading cause of death in women
- leading cause of death in over 70
- affects more women
- mortality has decreased by 50% over 50 years
- 17 million death yearly
UK burden of CHD
- 88,000 CHD deaths in UK yearly
- Commonest cause of premature death
- mortality falling but higher than rest of Europe
What are the risk factors of CHD?
- tobacco
- physical inactivity
- alcohol abuse
- hypertension
- obesity
- diabetes
- hyperlipidaemia
What is angina pectoris?
causes, relieved by?
- clinical diagnosis
- discomfort in chest, jaw, shoulders, arms or back
- provoked by stress or exertion
- rest or GTN (inorganic nitrate vasodilator)
Describe the epidemiology of stable angina
- incidence increasing
- 2 million cases in the UK
- affects more people as age increases
What is myocardial ischaemia?
- Mismatch between myocardial oxygen supply and demand
- Primary reduction in blood flow
- Inability to increase blood flow to match an increase in metabolic demand
What is the job of the coronary circulation?
- To make sure that over a wide range of perfusion pressures, flow remains constant - autoregulation
- To make sure that coronary blood flow matches myocardial demand
What is the purpose of investigations for stable CHD?
- To confirm the clinical diagnosis
- To assess risk of future adverse cardiovascular events (severity, heart function)
What are some of the categories of investigations into CHD?
Functional - demonstrate that there is an imbalance between supply and demand
Anatomical - look at anatomical severity of the narrowing within the artery then make an inference about how it is affecting flow
Some of these tests are invasive and others are not
Give examples of functional invasive and non invasive tests
invasive - FFR (guided pressure wire), iFR
non invasive - exercise ECG, stress echo, PET/CT
Give examples of anatomical invasive and non invasive tests
invasive - coronary angiogram
non invasive - CT coronary angiogram, CT coronary calcium score
What are the treatment strategies for CHD?
- prevent atherosclerosis progression and MI risk through education, lifestyle and aspirin/ACE inhibitors/statins
- reduce heart oxygen demand (meds to reduce heart rate, wall stress and metabolic modifiers)
- improve blood supply (vasodilators, revascularisation)