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ZTV Akron
Apr 18, 20205 min read

Exploring Heart Health | 300 Seconds of Science

General Manager: Juan Contreras

Producer: Nicole Maxhimer

Author: Rachael Sullivan

 

Hey everyone, even though everything is crazy right now, we are still here to fulfill your quest for scientific knowledge. Right now, everyone is worried about COVID-19, and while it is something to be knowledgeable about there is something that kills more people every year than Coronavirus. Not only that but having this disease makes you more likely to be hospitalized and even die from COVID-19.


What am I talking about? Heart failure! In this blog post, I am going to be specifically focusing on heart attacks and cardiac arrests; however, this is just one small part of heart health. At the end of this post, I’ll put some links where you can learn more about other cardiac diseases such as heart failure, arrhythmias, cardiomegaly, and murmurs. For now, let’s jump into talking about your heart! First, I want to quickly review how your heart pumps blood. 

  1. Deoxygenated blood enters the heart from the body through the superior and inferior vena cava.

  2. From there it collects in the right atrium. when the pressure in the right atrium becomes greater than the pressure in the right ventricle, the tricuspid valve opens.

  3. Blood rushes into the right ventricle. From there the right ventricle contracts, causing an increase in pressure, then causing the pulmonic valve to open and blood to go through the pulmonary artery. 

  4. Blood goes to the lungs where the carbon dioxide that is in the lungs is exchanged for oxygen.

  5. Blood comes back into the heart through the pulmonary vein where it enters the left atrium.

  6. Like before blood collects in the left atrium and when the pressure becomes too high the mitral valve opens and blood rushes to the left ventricle.

  7. From there the left ventricle squeezes causing the aortic valve to open.

  8. Finally, Blood rushes into the aorta where it is put into circulation in the body.


For a great video that explains this in more detail check out “The Heart, Part 1 - Under Pressure: Crash Course A&P #25”


A heart attack is when something blocks part of the heart from receiving blood. If this blockage isn’t quickly cleared, the section that isn’t receiving blood flow will begin to die. The longer the area goes without blood flow the more damage occurs.

While symptoms vary between people, men generally experience heavy chest pain that radiates down the left arm and up the jaw, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, nausea, and vomiting. Women, on the other hand, tend to feel something like heartburn, back pain, nausea, and shortness of breath. While these are not hard, fast rules, these are the stereotypical symptoms men and women experience.


Cardiac arrest is when the electrical impulses of the heart malfunction, causing the heart to beat improperly and blood to not circulate to the vital organs. Without quick treatment, the person will die. Unlike heart attacks, sudden cardiac arrests don’t have many symptoms except for possible lightheadedness and shortness of breath. More likely, the person will suddenly pass out and have no pulse and or respirations. Sometimes the person will have something called “agonal respirations”. This is a gasping that the body does out of reflex. It is not true breathing and as such, the person is not getting oxygen with this.


A great example of agonal respirations and the cardiac process can be found in this video called “Agonal Breaths in Cardiac Arrest-Would you Notice?”


The treatment of a heart attack is aimed at clearing the blockage. Generally, this is done through something called cardiac catheterization.

During this procedure, a tube called a catheter is threaded through a large artery in your wrist or groin, up to the heart. With this catheter in place, doctors can use real-time video x-ray machines, and dye to find out where the blockage in the heart is.

If needed, the doctor can also deploy a cardiac stent, an expandable coil of metal mesh, to help keep the blocked parts of the heart open. Doctors can also give a medication called nitroglycerin which works by making the blood vessels in and outside the heart wider to hopefully allow more blood to pass through. This is often the first line of treatment for someone who comes in with chest pain. Clot-busting agents can also be administered. After a heart attack, doctors tend to give their patients anticoagulants or “blood thinners” to try and prevent patients from forming another blood clot and causing another heart attack in the future.

As for cardiac arrest, treatment is aimed at treating dangerous heart arrhythmias. This is done through medication and defibrillation. while CPR and supplemental oxygenation are used to help minimize damage to the brain due to lack of oxygen the medications that tend to be administered are dependent on the type of arrhythmia. The ones that are commonly administered are Amiodarone, Atropine, and Epinephrine. While there are other medications that can be given for more specific arrhythmias, those three are the most common. Once the patient has cardiac activity, a.k.a they cannot be shocked, they are in asystole and have no electrical cardiac activity. Defibrillation works by delivering an electrical current to the heart which causes a disruption in the arrhythmia.

With both heart attacks and cardiac arrests, the most important factor in determining someone’s outcome is time. Time is tissue. This means the longer someone is in cardiac arrest or suffering from a heart attack, the more tissue begins to die. This can lead to issues with heart function and brain damage depending on how long it takes for these events to resolve. That is why it is so important to recognize the signs and symptoms of a heart attack or cardiac arrest and get treatment immediately. For cardiac arrest, the best thing you can do is start CPR while someone else calls 911 and get the closest AED. 


To learn more about how to perform CPR watch the video “Hands Only CPR Video - Live Training Version”


The easiest way to limit your risk of heart attack is through various lifestyle changes. These include: quitting smoking, eating healthy, reducing your cholesterol through a reduced intake of fats, lowering your blood pressure through a reduced intake of sodium, exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, managing diabetes, reducing stress, and limiting alcohol intake to two drinks a day for men and one for women. Even doing one of these things can help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.


That's all for this 300 Seconds of Science blog post. If you want to learn more about other science topics head on over to our youtube channel. While you're at it don't forget to give us a like on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and send us some love on Instagram. This was Rachael Sullivan reminding you to stay in, enjoy life, and stay curious!


To learn more about heart attacks, visit the American Heart Associations page on heart attacks https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/warning-signs-of-a-heart-attack


To learn more about cardiac arrest visit The American Heart Association’s website https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cardiac-arrest/emergency-treatment-of-cardiac-arrest


 

Courtesy of:

 










Author:

Rachael Sullivan

Nursing Major

 

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