Ischemic heart disease Flashcards
Causes
Narrowing of the coronaries due to:
- Atherosclerosis
- Severe HTN or tachycardia
- Coronary artery vasospasm
- Severe hypotension
- Hypoxia
- Anemia
- Severe AI or AS
- Hypertrophied ventricle (bigger size, bigger O2 demand)
Clinical signs
- Angina
- Ischemia
- MI
- Arrhythmias
- Ventricular dysfunction
- Sudden death
Risk factors
- Increasing age
- Male gender
- HLD
- DM
- HTN
- Smoking
- Family history
- Obesity
- Vascular disease
- Menopause
- High-estrogen contraceptives
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Type-A personality
Main problem in ischemic heart disease
Imbalance between
myocardial O2 demand and myocardial oxygen supply
What is an atherosclerotic plaque composed of
- fatty acids
- cholesterol
- cellular waste products
- calcium deposits, other junk.
- Pro-inflammatory, pro-coagulant.
What are the chemical messengers involved in angina
Adenosine and bradykinin
- these substances produce the chest pain typically associated with angina (thalamic/cortical stimulation).
- They also slow AV conduction, decreasing contractility to hopefully improve oxygen demand/supply imbalance
Stable angina
No change in angina symptoms/precipitating factors over the past 60 or more days.
Frequency/duration of pain unchanged.
Unstable angina
- Crescendo
- Caused by less than normal activity, unpredictable
- New onset
- Lasts for prolonged periods
- Occurring more frequently or more severely
- Signals impending MI
Associated with acute plaque changes & usually partial thrombosis
Increasing medication need also indicates worsening even if symptoms are under control
Shouldn’t be operating on these folks unless its an emergency. Probably gonna ruin your day.
Prinzmetal angina
At rest, usually not provoked by a specific action
Spasm of the coronary arteries
Can occur in completely normal vessel
Often associated with migraines, Raynauds, other vasospastic diseases
What is stunning
Brief ischemic period that can cause dysfunction for several hours. Not good.
Both contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle requires ATP, which becomes depleted in ischemia/hypoxia. If coronary flow is reestablished, ventricular function will slowly return to normal. The duration of reduced performance (myocardial stunning), depends on the duration of the preceding ischemia.
Hibernation
Impaired myocardial function from prolonged ischemia, but normal function is still restored following restoration of normal flow.
With hibernation restoration of normal coronary flow (e.g., by coronary bypass) will restore normal function in the affected region.
Preconditioning
Provoked brief periods of ischemia that confer protection against future ischemia.
- Short, repeating episodes of ischemia do not result in cumulative damage, but rather protect the heart from subsequent damage caused by a larger ischemic insult.
Shown to limit infarct size in later MI.
Pacing, exercise, opioids can evoke preconditioning
Inhaled anesthetics modulate this by blocking triggers (From what I read, this is good, but poorly understood. Interestingly COX-2 inhibitors completely abolish this protection. Who knew?)
Early management
Lifestyle modification
- diet
- execrcise
- smoking cessation
Treat any exacerbating factors:
- Fever
- Anemia
- Infection
- HTN
- HLD/Cholesterolemia
Pharmacological manipulation of O2 supply/demand
Drugs used in management
- BB
- reduce contractility and HR
- Ca++ channel blockers
- dilate coronaries, reduce contractility, reduce afterload
- ACE inhib
- improve contractility and reduce afterload
- Nitrates
- dilate coronaries and collaterals, decrease pre- and afterload (decrease in peripheral vasculat resistance and venodilation)
- Antiplatelets
- reduce potential for thrombosis
Surgical interventions
PCI
- balloons, stents, drug stents
CABG
- off-pump, minimally invasive, robotics, all kinds of stuff
Transmyocardial revascularization- sounds impressive
Surgical delay post stent placement
Angioplasty, no stent- 4-6 weeks
Bare stent- 30-45 days
Drug stent- 1 year
Acute Coronary Syndrome
Occurs with plaque disruption leading to partial or complete occlusion of a coronary artery
Coag cascade is triggered–> local hypercoagulable state–> thrombus formation leading to greater occlusion
Characteristics of unstable plaques
- T-cell aggregation at the shoulder region with macrophage clusters
- Thin fibrous cap
- Lipid rich core
- Newly formed intra-wall capillaries
- Lymphocyte/mast cell infiltration into the adventitia
Worst kind of plaques
Plaque instability more significant than size of plaque
Events after plaque rupture
Platelet aggregation → thromboxane A released (vasoconstriction) → IIb/IIIa receptors on platelets activated → further aggregation, strengthening of thrombus → fibrin deposited → thrombus formation
- Causes angina, infarction, sudden death
- Microemboli can also be dislodged, clotting off smaller vessels elsewhere
- Vasospasm also possible
Infarction
- Necrosis caused by ischemia
- In the heart, begins to occur within 20-30 minutes of ischemia onset
- Typically starts in the subendocardium
- Full infarct size usually occurs in 3-6 hours
- Size depends on proximity of lesion, collateral circulation
Dx of MI
Need 2 out of 3:
- Chest pain
- Serial EKG changes indicative of MI
- ST changes
- Increase and decrease in serum cardiac enzymes
Cardiac MRI helpful to determine extent of infarct
Initial Acute MI treatment
Evaluate hemodynamics, what’s your BP looking like
- Get a 12-lead
- O2, don’t go crazy though
- Pain relief- morphine
- NTG
- ASA or plavix
Reperfusion therapy for ACS
Thrombolytic therapy - Must start within 30-60 minutes of arrival time.
- streptokinase
- TPA
- reteplase
- tenecteplase
Direct angioplasty - Perform within 90 minutes of arrival, 12 hours of symptom onset.
- 5% fail and require surg.
- CABG- high mortality if in the first 3-7 days post MI
Adjunctive therapy
- Heparin
- BB
- ACE inhibitor - anterior MI, LV failure, EF
Unstable angina/Non-STEMI patho, Dx
Reduction in myocardial O2 supply
Change in angina symptoms
- angina at rest
- chronic angina that is becoming more frequent/severe, or
- new onset EKG changes ST depression in two or more contiguous leads and/or
- deep symmetrical T-wave inversion
Troponin levels
Tx for Non-STEMI
- Rest
- O2
- Analgesia
- BB
- NTG
- ASA/Plavix
- Heparin
- Possible revascularization