Heart Artery Disease

• Introduction
• Chest pain
  • Angina
  • Other chest pain
• Heart attack (myocardial infarction)
  • Introduction
• Assessment of the heart arteries
  • Treadmill stress test
  • Stress echocardiogram
  • Stress nuclear studies
  • Angiogram- invasive
  • Angiogram- CT
• Treatment of heart artery disease
  • Medication
  • Stent treatment
  • Heart bypass surgery

Causes of Chest Pain

Any new chest discomfort should be evaluated to ensure it is not due to angina.

Chest pain that is sharp, localised to a small part of the chest, and that is only of a few seconds duration is not angina.

Stress can cause angina. Stress can also cause chest pain that seems to arise from the chest wall. Usually, this is described as a mild discomfort that tends to persist for a prolonged period and does not seem to worsen with exercise.

Stress may not cause any chest discomfort initially. However, after a prolonged period of stress chest discomfort may develop. Minor degress of stress may be enough to result in chest discomfort.

Some people have disease of the heart arteries and also have chest discomfort that is not due to angina- this combination can be difficult to evaluate and treat.

At times stress related chest discomfort may not be easily distinguished from angina.

Chest discomfort can be caused by many other problems, including a sprain of the chest wall muscles and by indigestion due to acid reflux.