High Blood Pressure Causes Heart Attack

High blood pressure Hypertension is major risk factor of causing atherosclerosis in coronary blood vessels, result is Heart attack or Myocardial Infarction.

 Heart attack is called as Myocardial Infarction in medical terminology. Heart is supplied by right and left coronary arteries. Whenever these arteries are blocked, blood supply to heart stops and wall of heart damages, result is Heart Attack with symptoms of severe constricting chest pain radiating to left arm jaw or shoulder, profuse sweating, vomiting, and feeling of anxiety. If the blood supply is cut off for more than a few minutes, muscle cells suffer permanent injury and die. This can kill or disable someone, depending on how much heart muscle is damaged.

There are 4 major risk factors which are responsible for this heart attack. What are those? Hypertension also called as High Blood Pressure, Hypercholesterolemia, Diabetes, and Smoking. In this article our main focus is High Blood Pressure. How does High blood pressure play role in causing Heart Attack. Remember, whenever coronary blood supply will be decreased or blocked, heart attack will take place. Arteries can be blocked by two different ways. Atherosclerosis and second cause is Artery spasm. Now lets discuss process of Atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is a type of arteriosclerosis. The name comes from the Greek words athero (meaning gruel or paste) and sclerosis (hardness). It is a process of formation of plaque inside the wall of blood vessel. Plaque is collection of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and fibrin (a clotting material in the blood). When person gets old, process of atherosclerosis starts. Thickening of blood vessels is called atherosclerosis. So far we have just talked about thickening of vessels. How vessels get block.

Now what next, plaque can undergo following changes. Either bleeding (hemorrhage) into the plaque , blood enters into wall of blood vessel, thus it gets more thickened and block the vessel or plaque gets damage and platelet(Cells which helps in clotting process) comes and aggregate on the plaque where it damages. Thus causing more narrowing of vessel. We were talking about blood pressure causing atherosclerosis. Yes, it is main risk factor. Actually it is high blood pressure which causes injury to these plaques, so after injury to these plaques, platelet comes to injured areas and further narrow the blood vessels.Because of the damage, over time fats, cholesterol, platelets, cellular debris and calcium are also deposited in the artery wall. These substances may stimulate the cells of the artery wall to produce still other substances like smooth muscles. This results in more cells accumulating in the innermost layer of the artery wall where the atherosclerotic lesions form. These cells accumulate, and many of them divide. At the same time, fat builds up within and around these cells. They also form connective tissue.

Atherosclerosis affects large and medium sized arteries. The type of artery and where the plaque develops varies with each person.Atherosclerosis is a slow, progressive disease that may start in children as well. In some people this disease progresses rapidly in their third decade. In others it doesn't become threatening until they're in their 50s or 60s.

If atherosclerosis takes place in heart vessels . oxygen supply to the heart muscles decreases, resulting in heart wall damage, called as Heart Attack.

Second cause of decreased blood supply is artery spasm. Sometimes a coronary artery temporarily contracts or goes into spasm. When this happens the artery narrows and blood flow to the heart muscle decreases or stops. A spasm can occur in normal-appearing blood vessels as well as in vessels partly blocked by atherosclerosis. A severe spasm can cause a heart attack.

So always keep your blood pressure under controlled limits, otherwise you can be a victim of Heart Attack.If you want to read more about High Blood pressure visit our website.
 By Dr.Armughan Consultant Cardiologist