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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. Heart failure may be a temporary problem that goes away after your heart, which has been stunned by a heart attack, recovers. 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/health-topics/topics/heartattack/printall-index.html. Accessed March 21, 2013.
- Crawford MH, ed. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Cardiology. 3rd ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=8. Accessed March 22, 2013.
- Field JM, et al. Part 1: Executive summary - 2010 American Heart Association guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care. Circulation. 2010;122(suppl):S640.
- Understand your risk of heart attack. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/UnderstandYourRiskofHeartAttack/Understand-Your-Risk-of-Heart-Attack_UCM_002040_Article.jsp. Accessed March 23, 2013.
- O'Gara PT, et al. 2013 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Management of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Executive Summary: A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2013;127:529.
- Reeder GS, et al. Overview of the acute management of ST elevation myocardial infarction. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed March 22, 2013.
- Thygesen K, et al. Third universal definition of myocardial infarction. Circulation. 2012;126:2020.
- Stefanini GG, et al. Drug-eluting coronary-artery stents. New England Journal of Medicine. 2013;368:254.
- Alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular disease. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/Alcoholic-Beverages-and-Cardiovascular-Disease_UCM_305864_Article.jsp. Accessed March 22, 2013.
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