Many people think that summer is the “off-season” for cardiovascular disease, but this is not the case. Because of the long days and short nights in summer, the temperature is hot, many people shorten the sleep time, sleep deprivation will lead to increased blood pressure, and early in the morning is prone to “morning peak hypertension” situation, the two superposition is easy to induce cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. If you have a sudden myocardial infarction at home, how to correctly self-help, what drugs can be used?
I. How to determine whether a myocardial infarction has occurred
Correctly diagnosing myocardial infarction is the first step to successful self-help. The typical symptom of myocardial infarction, is chest pain, but half of the people with chest pain are not obvious symptoms, may just feel pressure in the chest, very uncomfortable.
There are also some people who experience atypical symptoms when they have a myocardial infarction, experiencing pain in other areas, such as the back, shoulders, arms, neck, stomach pain, or even manifesting as a toothache.
If you are over 40 years old, have a smoking habit, or have hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes and other “three high” chronic diseases, you should be aware of myocardial infarction when you have chest pain, chest tightness, or unexplained pain in other parts of your body.
II. Myocardial infarction self-help to avoid misunderstandings
Some people say that when a heart attack occurs, coughing hard, or beating the chest hard, can save their lives. These two methods are not correct self-help, but may accelerate the progress of the disease. When a myocardial infarction occurs, you should minimize your activities to avoid increasing the burden on your heart, and all you have to do is rest on the spot and call for help.
When resting, it is best to adopt a semi-recumbent position with back support. Because when a heart attack occurs, the heart will experience acute ischemia and hypoxia, the pumping function is affected, and may be in a state of heart failure, lying down will increase the amount of returned blood and increase the burden on the heart.
III. What drugs are available
People with coronary heart disease, should carry nitroglycerin, sublingual in the presence of chest pain, chest tightness, can expand the coronary arteries, improve myocardial blood supply.
Note that nitroglycerin is ineffective if swallowed, and can only be taken under the tongue. After opening the package, the shelf life of nitroglycerin will be shortened to about 3 months, so remember to replace it in time. If you don’t have the feeling of “spicy mouth” when taking it, it means that the drug has failed.
One point to note, nitroglycerin will cause a decrease in blood pressure, if the patient is pale, wet and cold, then it is very likely to be in a state of low blood pressure, at this time it is not advisable to use nitroglycerin. If you have a sphygmomanometer at hand, you can measure your blood pressure before using the drug. You can take 1 tablet every 5 minutes, and if the chest pain is not relieved after taking 3 tablets, it is very likely that myocardial infarction has occurred.
If acute myocardial infarction is diagnosed, you can chew 3 aspirin (100mg/tablet) to enhance the inhibition of platelets, which may lead to the dissolution of newly formed thrombus at the blockage site.
However, self-administration of aspirin is not recommended because the disease causing chest pain cannot be diagnosed on its own. If the chest pain is caused by aortic coarctation, taking aspirin can worsen the disease and increase the risk of death.
A safer course of action is to call “120” and wait for the emergency physician to confirm the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction or a high degree of suspicion of acute myocardial infarction, and then take the aspirin under the guidance of the doctor.
IV. Seek medical attention as soon as possible to save cardiomyocytes
Suspected of myocardial infarction, should immediately call “120” emergency, do not go to the hospital. If you have an oxygen absorbing device at home, you can first inhale oxygen to reduce myocardial damage.
If the emergency doctor diagnoses acute myocardial infarction, he or she will help you choose the nearest hospital that can do cardiac stenting and has thrombolytic conditions. Please trust your doctor’s choice and don’t choose your own doctor. After a heart attack, the sooner the blood vessels are reopened, the better; 30 minutes, one hour or two hours can be a very different outcome.
If surgery is needed, the family should not hesitate to sign and should not wait for a “familiar face”. If it takes more than 6 hours, the ischemic myocardial cells will be completely necrotic, and even the most skillful doctor will not be able to save them.
To summarize, over 40 years of age, smoking, “three high” people, in the summer should also be on guard against myocardial infarction. Learning to recognize the symptoms of heart attack and mastering the knowledge of self-help can save your life at the critical moment. Elderly people with basic illnesses can store their medical insurance cards, bank cards, medical records and other related items in a centralized place, so that they can be taken away quickly when something happens to buy time to save their lives.