“What could have been the cause of my father's heart attack in the hospital?”
My father is in the hospital receiving care for a mild heart attack he had two weeks ago. However, in the ICU itself he got yet another mild heart attack yesterday. What could be the reason?
3 Answers
Low blood flow to the heart
There's no way to know for sure but the risk of a second heart attack is pretty significant under most circumstances. A heart attack occurs when blood flow to an area of the heart muscle is obstructed which can happen because of a clot or a plaque within the inside of the vessel. Your father is Dr and providers would be a good resource for you to ask how his risks are being managed and reduced as much as possible
This was likely a type two NSTEMI from demand ischemia. This means your father likely has obstruction of his coronary arteries at baseline which doesn't prevent his heart from receiving the necessary blood supply but when his body is under stress from infection or medications used to keep his blood pressure elevated his heart muscle needs more flow than his partially obstructed arteries can supply causing his heart to leak a protein called troponin which is a marker for heart muscle stress. This happens all the time in sick patients and typically resolves with treatment of the underlining stressor and without any intervention. He should consider having a nuclear medicine stress test or cardiac catheterization when he is more stable to possibly fix underlying disease.
Jack Stephens, MD
Jack Stephens, MD
