They will also want to know whether you have had a heart attack in the past, surgeries, and if you take any medications. This information will help physicians determine whether the pain you are feeling is due to a heart attack. If you are having a heart attack, rapid pulse, changes in blood pressure, crackles in lungs, and abnormal heart sounds might be found on physical examination. This procedure is not painful. Specific changes in the ECG alert the physician that a heart attack is occurring.
Blood tests provide an indication of heart muscle damage.
When some of the heart muscle dies, the dead cells release chemicals into the blood. This enzyme is found only in heart muscle cells. Another chemical which is becoming more widely evaluated is troponin T, also found only in heart muscle cells. The levels of these chemicals present in the blood can tell doctors how much heart muscle has been damaged and when the heart attack might have first occurred. If ECG results determine that you are having a heart attack, your doctor will try to use medications to help the heart.