Heart attack Signs and Symptoms
The onset of usual symptoms of a heart attack (Myocardial Infraction) is normally slow and instant in rare cases. In a myocardial infraction, chest pain is a generally known symptom and is mostly explained as a feeling of pressure, tightness, or squeezing.
The restricted supply of blood (ischemia) and oxygen to the heart causes chest pain and is termed as angina pectoris. In most cases, the patient feels pain in the left arm. Apart from this, the chest pain can also radiate to the tight arm, lower jaw, back, epigastrium, and neck, where it may feel like heartburn.
Because of the damaged heart, the working of the left ventricle is limited. This results in left ventricular failure and one can feel dyspnea (shortness of breath). Other symptoms are weakness, excess sweating (diaphoresis), nausea, palpitations, vomiting, and light headedness. Older people and women can experience some different symptoms than men and younger people.
Fatigue, dyspnea, and weakness are some of the common symptoms of a heart attack in women. In women, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and dyspnea are frequently experienced symptoms which can occur for as long as a month before the occurrence of an actual heart attack.
Mostly, all of the MI patients feel chest pain before the infarction. Studies have shown that a quarter of MI patients get silent attack where no chest pain or any other symptom is seen. A silent attack is more common in diabetic patients or elderly people.