Prevention

You can help to prevent a heart attack by controlling your risk factors for atherosclerosis, especially high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes. If you have high cholesterol, follow your doctor's guidelines for a healthy diet low in fats and cholesterol, and, if necessary, take medication to decrease your blood cholesterol level. If you have high blood pressure, follow your doctor's recommendations for modifying your diet and taking your medication. If you smoke, quit. If you are diabetic, monitor your blood sugar level frequently, follow your diet, and take your insulin or oral medication as your doctor has prescribed. It is also wise to exercise regularly and to maintain an ideal weight.

Treatment

The treatment of a heart attack depends on how stable the person's condition is and his or her immediate risk of death. Usually, the doctor will give the patient an aspirin to chew in the emergency room, because aspirin helps to prevent blood clotting.

The person also will be given oxygen to breathe, pain medication (usually morphine) for chest pain, beta-blockers to reduce the heart's demand for oxygen, and, if blood pressure is not too low, nitroglycerin to temporarily increase blood flow to the heart. While in the hospital, patients often are given daily beta-blockers, ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors, which help the heart work more efficiently, primarily by lowering blood pressure, and aspirin. Most heart attack patients also are given a prescription for a cholesterol-lowering medication.

If the diagnosis of heart attack is certain, then the patient will be considered for reperfusion therapy. The goal is to restore blood flow to the injured heart muscle as soon as possible to limit permanent damage. Reperfusion is best done mechanically. The patient is taken to the cardiac catheterization laboratory in the hospital and a catheter is threaded through a large blood vessel toward the heart. Dye is injected to locate the blockage in the coronary artery.