What it is
Smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, inactivity, being overweight and a family history all raise the risk.
Treatment includes lifestyle changes, medicines such as statins, aspirin and blood pressure tablets, and procedures to open or bypass narrowed arteries (stents or bypass surgery). Cardiac rehabilitation helps recovery after a heart attack.
Common signs
- Chest pain or tightness on exertion (angina)
- Breathlessness
- Pain spreading to the arm, neck, jaw or back
- Feeling faint or sick
- Sometimes no symptoms before a heart attack
How it is usually diagnosed
- ECG and blood tests
- Exercise testing
- CT coronary angiogram
- Coronary angiography
- Echocardiogram
Records worth keeping
Keeping these together makes each appointment easier, especially when you see a new doctor:
- ECG and angiogram reports
- Details of any stents or bypass grafts and their dates
- Cholesterol and blood pressure results
- Your list of medicines
- Cardiac rehabilitation notes
Questions to ask your doctor
- How narrowed are my arteries, and do I need a procedure?
- What should I do if I get chest pain?
- Can I join cardiac rehabilitation?
When to get help right away
Call 112 or go to the nearest emergency department if you have:
- Chest pain that does not go away after a few minutes of rest or with your GTN spray, especially with sweating, sickness or breathlessness: call 112
This page is general information. It is not a diagnosis and does not replace a doctor who knows your history. Medfold keeps your records organised; it does not interpret them.