Angina Pectoris: Antianginal Drugs
Prevention of complications
Aspirin in low doses, reduces the ability of a small blood cells, platelets, from sticking to each other. Through this mechanism, aspirin helps prevent blood clots (thrombi).
Treatment of angina pectoris
- Nitroglycerin administered sublingually (under the tongue) tablets or spray to dilate the coronary arteries, decreases the heart’s workload and helps to relieve acute anginal symptoms.
- The long-acting preparations of nitrates or nitroglycerin was used to reduce the frequency of attacks of angina. Continue reading
Angina Pectoris: Diagnosis
How is angina diagnosed?
Often the diagnosis is based on the presence of typical symptoms in medical history, and rapid relief of angina symptoms to manage under the tongue a tablet or spray nitroglycerin.
When possible, it is also useful to perform an electrocardiogram (ECG) before they give in the pain. In any case, the electrocardiogram is a test required before any suspicion of angina pectoris.
In many cases, be subjected to a suspected angina to a stress test, which involves making an ECG recording while walking on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike, taking care to set the exercise intensity. This test helps determine if the pain originates in the heart muscle, and typically performed by a cardiologist in a specialized service. Continue reading
Angina Pectoris: Risk Factors and Prevention
What are the risk factors?
In developed countries, atherosclerosis (the progressive hardening of the arteries due to atherosclerosis) affects many people. Coronary atherosclerosis can begin in the first decades of life, and increases with age. There are numerous risk factors that are associated with development of atherosclerosis:
- A family history of atherosclerosis
- Hypercholesterolemia (increased blood cholesterol, especially the so-called LDL cholesterol)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure too)
- Smoking
- Being male
- Diabetes Type 1 and Type 2
- Obesity
- Stress
- Lack of habit of regular exercise Continue reading
Angina Pectoris: What is Angina?
What is angina?
Angina is the sensation caused by poor blood supply transient part of the heart. In Latin it means choking or narrowness angina, finally something to squeeze. Angina is indeed a squeezing pain, an oppressive feeling of heaviness or a squeezing sensation in the center of the chest behind the sternum (the area tie), sometimes seen in the left chest, and less frequently, on the right.
Anginal pain may radiate to one or both arms, but more often to the left, and sometimes it can feel like a heaviness or numbness in the shoulder or arm. This feeling sometimes extends from the elbow to the fingers, especially the little finger. Rarely, angina can be experienced in the neck, throat, jaw and lower teeth, ears, stomach, or between the scapulae (shoulders). By making a physical effort angina patients also often experience difficulty breathing, while pain and oppression. Continue reading