Heart / Heart Attack Questions...

[SteveBi]

Hello, all. I've got some questions about my health but first let me tell you all more about me. I'm a teenager, not in good shape at all (I live a sendentary life, basically...), and I have hereditary blood pressure.

Now, about 2 weeks ago, I was up around 3 AM getting ready to go to sleep. I felt these palpitations when I was lying in bed. I started to think about them because it was strange.. next thing I knew, I was in a cold sweat, with shivers. It lasted around 5 to 10 minutes. My question is: Was this a heart attack or a panic attack? (I drank lots of caffeine the previous day. I don't drink ANY at all since it happened, which I'm happy of.) One of the questions I can't seem to find an answer to is, if it WAS a heart attack, wouldn't I have been dead now without treatment? I read that the heart dies if it's left untreated for a few hours.

Next, after this attack of some sort, I started feeling palpitations. I could feel my pulse ALL the time. I went to my doctor and described the situation but he didn't say much about it. I was given Ambien so I could sleep as I wasn't able to fall asleep.. and I would start getting random cold sweats and shivers when I was thinking about it.

What's bothering me now is that I'm having chest "pains". They are very mild. And once they start during the day (Not everyday.. only sometimes.) they last pretty much the rest of the day. I'm not even sure what this pain feels like. It seems like a constant "soft" burning in the middle of the chest. Sometimes in the right side.

This Wednesday, I'm going back to my doctor for other reasons and I will tell him to send me to do some tests like an ECG or something else. I'm not sure if it's heart related or if it has something to do with GERD.

(About my blood pressure medications, I take Hyzaar 100 / 25 once in the morning. And, I take Diltiazem 30 mg twice a day. Once with Hyzaar and once in the evening. My blood pressure IS NOT fully controlled. It is still high as I've only started taking blood pressure medication a week and a half ago, when I last saw my doctor. As it only started becoming a problem after the "incident".)

If there's anything else anybody needs to know about what's going on, let me know. Hope you guys can give me some insight!

(Edit: I also have asthma but it's controlled fairly well. No issues.)

Thank you,

- Steve

[started04]

Hi Steve,

A heart attack medically called a myocardiac infraction (MI), is necrosis of heart muscle . It happens often due to a lack of oxygen/blood to the heart muscle. Or damaged heart muscle due to ingestion of a toxin substance (medication, drugs, etc.) Sometimes there are no pain or symptoms, and one continues to function without awareness for a long time until another attack that is sometimes fatal (65% of deaths due to heart attack had a previous MI).

You have a lot of things going on health wise and although young, you should have tests to rule out a heart problem.

[SteveBi]

Hi, thanks for the response.

Could you possibly list me specific tests that I could ask for and that would usually determine if the heart is good?

Thanks again,

- Steve

[started04]

Quote: "One of the questions I can't seem to find an answer to is, if it WAS a heart attack, wouldn't I have been dead now without treatment? I read that the heart dies if it's left untreated for a few hours."

Some clarification: A heart attack does damage heart muscle, but if attention is timely and blood is returned to damaged area, it is possible the heart muscle will return to normal. Probably a window of a couple of hours.

Quote: "Could you possibly list me specific tests that I could ask for and that would usually determine if the heart is good?"

An echocardiogram (echo) can determine the heart's pumping efficiency. The efficiency fraction (EF) should be 75% to 55 of the blood pumped out of the left ventricle with each heart beat. If muscle damage has occurred, the the EF will be less than the normal range as the heart's contraction ability will be somewhat impaired depending on the extent of damage.