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Heart Attacks and Strokes: Information, Treatment and Prevention

As you saw from the GBD visualization data, heart attacks and strokes are two of the leading causes of death in the USA. We’ll learn specifics about what they are, how they are treated and how they can be prevented.

First, we’ll view a video about a man having a heart attack. This is only a dramatization.

Video Guide questions:

  1. Whatbehaviorsincrease John’s risk of having a heartattack? List all thoseyou notice.
  1. Why are coronary arteries so important?
  1. What happens to excess cholesterol in your body?
  1. If given time, how does the heart overcome blocked arteries?
  1. Why is sudden exercise potentially dangerous when a coronary artery is partially clogged?
  1. When an artery becomes fully blocked, what happens to the heart cells “downstream”?
  1. What does the drug TPA do?
  1. What is ventricular fibrillation?
  1. How can ventricular fibrillation be remedied?
  1. In the coronary artery below, show what happens during a heart attack.

There are several good ways to prevent a heart attack.

The first, of course, is to try to lower your risk factors as much as possible! And work out multiple times per week at your target heart rate if you can!

But, if you are found to have dangerous plaque formations in your coronary arteries, two interventions are possible.

We’ll begin by looking at a model.

What is this model supposed to represent?

Next, we’ll take a look at some surgical tools. They relate to the model you just saw –

What do you think these tools are used for? How do you think they are they used?

View the video called “Coronary Stenting Demonstration”

Briefly draw or describe a Stent Implant Angioplasty procedure in your own words/pictures.

View the video called “Coronary Artery Bypass procedure”. Notice that this surgery is dramatically more invasive and serious than angioplasty. This procedure requires weeks of recovery.

A Stent Implant Angioplasty can thus be used to prevent a heart attack in a coronary artery that has cholesterol buildup. But what happens when problems like cholesterol buildup occur in the arteries of the brain?

View the “Understanding Stroke video” to learn about the different kinds of strokes.

Ischemic -

Embolic –

Thrombotic –

Hemorrhagic -

Intracerebral -

Subarachnoid -

Which specific kind of stroke seems most like a heart attack, except that it takes place in a brain artery and not in a coronary artery?

Finally, view the “Carotid Stenting Demonstration” link to see how this procedure can be used to help prevent strokes, much in the same way the other stenting procedure can be used to prevent heart attacks.

What’s the purpose of the filter that is put in place before the balloon is inserted?