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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffHeart attack complications are often related to the damage done to your heart during a heart attack. This damage can lead to the following conditions:
- Abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). If your heart muscle is damaged from a heart attack, electrical "short circuits" can develop resulting in abnormal heart rhythms, some of which can be serious, even fatal.
- Heart failure. The amount of damaged tissue in your heart may be so great that the remaining heart muscle can't do an adequate job of pumping blood out of your heart. This decreases blood flow to tissues and organs throughout your body and may produce shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling in your ankles and feet. Heart failure may be a temporary problem that goes away after your heart, which has been stunned by a heart attack, recovers over a few days to weeks. However, it can also be a chronic condition resulting from extensive and permanent damage to your heart following your heart attack.
- Heart rupture. Areas of heart muscle weakened by a heart attack can rupture, leaving a hole in part of the heart. This rupture is often fatal.
- Valve problems. Heart valves damaged during a heart attack may develop severe, life-threatening leakage problems.
References
- Heart attack. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/HeartAttack/HeartAttack_All.html. Accessed Oct. 1, 2009.
- American Heart Association. 2005 Guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care. Circulation. 2005;112:1S.
- Ewy GA. Cardiocerebral resuscitation should replace cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Current Opinion in Critical Care. 2006;12:189.
- Hefland M, et al. Emerging risk factors for coronary heart disease: A summary of systematic reviews conducted for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2009;151:496.
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Using nontraditional risk factors in coronary heart disease risk assessment: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2009;151:474.
- Chobanian AV, et al. The seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. New England Journal of Medicine. 2003;289:2560.
- Stimulants. National Institute on Drug Abuse. http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_stim2.php. Accessed Oct. 1, 2009.
- King SB, et al. 2007 update of the ACC/AHA/ SCAI 2005 guideline update for percutaneous coronary intervention. Circulation. 2008;117:261.
- Antman EM, et al. Use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs: An update for clinicians. Circulation. 2007;115:1634.
- Shaw LJ, et al. Optimal medical therapy with or without percutaneous coronary intervention to reduce ischemic burden. Circulation. 2008;117:1283.
- Rind DM, et al. Intensity of lipid lowering therapy in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 1, 2009.
- Alcohol, wine and cardiovascular disease. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4422. Accessed Oct. 1, 2009.
- Sexual activity and heart disease or stroke. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4714. Accessed Oct. 1, 2009.
- Lightwood JM, et al. Declines in acute myocardial infarction after smoke-free laws and individual risk attributable to secondhand smoke. Circulation. 2009;120:1373.
