At 12 o’clock in the middle of the night, 120 sent an old man with severe asthma. After seeing the patient, the doctor immediately issued a critical illness notice!
The patient was in his 70s and suffered from sudden severe chest pain 4 months ago. The local hospital diagnosed “acute myocardial infarction”. Immediately after hospitalization, he underwent cardiac angiography.
Doctors immediately implanted a stent to open the blocked blood vessel. However, the patient’s symptoms did not ease, but instead the blood pressure plummeted and he went into shock, and was rushed to the ICU for emergency treatment. After 1 week of treatment, the condition turned a corner. Doctors are about to re-operate on another severely narrowed blood vessel.
In order to achieve better treatment effects, doctors even used drug balloons with a unit price of up to 10,000 yuan. However, this backfired. After the patient was discharged from the hospital, he coughed and held his breath intermittently. The patient thought that he had pneumonia and was given antibiotics in the clinic. However, not only did the symptoms not improve, but 4 months after being discharged from the hospital, he developed severe wheezing, was unable to lie down, and broke out in a cold sweat. The family quickly dialed 120 to be sent to a higher-level hospital.
Cardiac ultrasound showed that the patient’s cardiac function was severely deteriorated, and only half of the normal person remained! And there was arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation heart rate up to 150 beats / min! The veins of the lower extremities are also full of blood clots!
The family members are very puzzled: Why do we spend so much money for surgery, but the symptoms have not improved, but so many “new diseases” have been added?
In fact, these three “new diseases” are common complications of acute myocardial infarction . They not only seriously affect the treatment effect, but also bring new threats to the life and health of patients:
1. Heart failure
The incidence of heart failure in patients with acute myocardial infarction 7 days after onset is close to 20%, and can reach up to 37.5% over time! The 5-year mortality rate for heart failure is as high as 50%! It can be said that heart failure has become the biggest killer of heart disease patients.
In order to prevent heart failure, we need to learn these 2 points:
1. Control the intake
Avoid alcohol and strong tea; reduce excess water intake in addition to essential water; reduce the use of salt, especially pickled and smoked foods.
2. Assess Cardiac Load
In addition to observing whether there is edema in the lower extremities, every morning after defecation on an empty stomach, measure the body weight regularly. If the weight increases by more than 4 kg within 2 days, or more than 5 kg within 1 week, it indicates that there is excessive accumulation of water in the body, and there is a possibility of aggravation of heart failure. .
2. Arrhythmia
Myocardial ischemia and heart failure can induce arrhythmias, such as rapid atrial fibrillation. If the heart rate is not effectively controlled, it will increase the load on the heart and aggravate the heart condition.
Therefore, heart disease patients should pay attention to monitoring their daily heart rate and control the heart rate between 60-80 beats per minute ; once the heart beats too fast, too slow, or beats more or less frequently, it all indicates arrhythmia. It is necessary to seek medical attention in time, improve the ECG or 24-hour dynamic ECG examination, and timely clarify the condition.
3. Lower extremity venous thrombosis
The blood of patients with myocardial infarction is in a hypercoagulable state, lipids and inflammatory factors are disordered, and in addition to prolonged bed rest, blood clots are prone to occur in the veins of the lower extremities.
Therefore, in addition to actively taking medication to treat the primary disease, patients with myocardial infarction should also participate in recovery training in a timely manner to reduce the risk of lower extremity venous thrombosis. Usually, absolute bed rest for 3 days before acute myocardial infarction, bedside activities can be performed after the 5th day, low-intensity daily life can be appropriately resumed after 1 week, gentle exercise can be performed in 2-4 months, and normal exercise can be basically resumed after 6 months .
I’m Dr. Zhang of Cardiovascular Medicine. If you like my popular science articles, please like it! You can also forward and share this article with your friends in need! Follow me to see more health knowledge about heart disease!