Get In Touch Find long lost friends and relatives. The recent report that we Brits are among the worst in Europe for the care of the heart comes as a surprise to general practitioners like myself. We save a lot more people in the first few hours than we used to. What the European report points out, however, is that once in hospital and beginning to recover from the attack, fewer patients in Britain than elsewhere get the follow up tests that lead the way towards correcting the coronary problem. Many heart attacks happen because a short length of the artery that brings blood and oxygen to the heart muscle is narrowed.
Clots form at the site of the narrowing, and they eventually block the artery completely.
The area of heart muscle beyond the block dies away, and that leads to the heart being weakened. This is the heart muscle protesting at having too little oxygen to cope with its needs. The pain is similar to a stitch in the side when running. Coronary angiograms show exactly where coronary arteries are narrowed. From them the specialist heart team determine how to proceed.