The heart has four chambers – two on the left side and two on the right. The two top chambers are called the atria, and the two lower chambers are called the ventricles. The left and the right sides of the heart are separated by a muscular wall called the septum
Each chamber has valves to ensure that blood only passes one way through the heart. The heart diagram shows the names of the different parts and the arrows show the direction of blood flow.
The right side of the heart receives blood from the veins in the body and pumps it through the pulmonary artery to the lungs. There, it picks up fresh oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and then passes through to the left side of the heart.
The left side of the heart receives oxygen-rich blood from the arteries in the lungs, and pumps it through the aorta to the body.
With each heartbeat, the heart pumps blood forward from the left side of the heart through the aorta and into the arteries. The arteries divide off into smaller and smaller branches to supply a microscopic network of capillaries, taking the blood to every part of your body, even to the heart itself.
The blood travels back to the heart from all areas of the body having given the nutrients and oxygen required. It starts off at the capillaries, joins to veins and then much larger veins and back to the right side of the heart (blue on the diagram).
Between each heart beat the heart relaxes and blood fills its right side. When it contracts again this blood is forced to the lungs to retrieve oxygen and then continues to the left side of the heart. The two sides of the heart are separate but they work together. The right side of the heart receives dark, de-oxygenated blood which has circulated around your body. It pumps this to your lungs where, upon picking up a fresh supply of oxygen, it becomes bright red.
Each side of the heart has a thin-walled ‘collecting chamber’ (the atrium) which helps to fill the thick-walled main pump (the ventricle). The walls of the heart are made of specialised muscle cells called myocardium. Like every other living tissue, the myocardium itself needs a continuous supply of fresh blood. This supply of blood comes from the coronary arteries as it leaves the left ventricle. The coronary arteries spread across the outside of the myocardium, feeding it with a supply of blood.
The system explained above is called the circulatory system and serves to pump the eight pints (or five litres) of blood contained in your body from head to toe, recirculating the blood constantly. Each day, your heart beats about 100,000 times and pumps about 23,000 litres (5,000 gallons) of blood through it.
Disease of the heart and therefore circulation is known as Cardiovascular Disease and is the most common cause of death in the UK. It includes coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack and stroke.
What is coronary heart disease?
Over time, the artery may become so narrow that it cannot deliver enough oxygen to your heart, especially when you are exerting yourself. This can lead to angina – a pain or discomfort in your chest.
A heart attack occurs when a piece of the fatty atheroma breaks away from the artery wall and forms a blood clot. If this clot then blocks the heart artery, your heart muscle will be starved of blood and oxygen. When someone is suffering from a heart attack you must dial 999 as it is an emergency and it is vital that treatment to restore blood flow can take place as soon as possible.
The coronary arteries can become narrowed by a gradual build-up of fatty material within their walls. In time, the artery may become so narrow that it cannot deliver enough oxygen-containing blood to the heart muscle when its demands are high – such as during activity, exercise or increased stress levels. The pain or discomfort that happens as a result is called angina.
You are particularly likely to develop atherosclerosis if:
- you smoke any form of tobacco
- you have high blood pressure
- you have a high blood cholesterol level
- you take little physical activity, or
- you have diabetes.
Other things increasing your risk of developing atherosclerosis are being overweight or obese, and having a family history of relatives having a heart attack or angina before the age of 55 for a man or 65 for a woman.
Every year 70.000 people in the UK suffer from a heart attack. One in three people who have a heart attack die before reaching hospital.
This means that one of the arteries supplying the heart is blocked and the heart muscle dies. The longer patients wait before calling for help the larger the damage to the heart and the higher the risk of death. In heart attacks every minute counts.
Often patients wait for hours before asking for help, some even wait for days before seeing the GP. The longer the heart attack is left untreated the greater and more irreversible the damage is to the heart muscle. This results in a condition called heart failure that requires repeated hospital admission, implantation of complex devices and even death.
Not what it seems!
“The main reason for delays appears to be that patients do not think that they are having a heart attack when the symptoms start. We have asked patients who were admitted to the Lancashire cardiac centre with a heart attack how they would describe the symptoms leading up to admission. We were surprised that the classic symptom of chest pain hardly featured at all. The most common discomfort described was Indigestion.” – Jonas Eichhofer, Consultant Cardiologist at the Lancashire Cardiac Centre.
The faster you act the more chances you have of muscle tissue around your heart being saved and the better your recovery will be.
Paramedics would rather be called out to find an honest mistake has been made than be too late to save a person’s life.
If you think you are having a heart attack it is time to THINK A&E and call 999. It could save your life.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter using #thinkheartattack
A heart attack happens when there is a sudden loss of blood flow to a part of your heart muscle.
Every five minutes, it happens to someone in the UK. There are currently 1.35 million people in the UK who have survived one. Coronary heart disease is the UK’s single biggest killer. Every 6 minutes someone dies of a heart attack in the UK.
A heart attack is life threatening and you need to have treatment as soon as possible.
Early treatment to get the blood flowing to the damaged part of your heart muscle again can save your life and limit the amount of permanent damage. Many people who have a heart attack need to have emergency treatment. One in three people who have a heart attack die before reaching hospital.
Research has shown that symptoms of heart attack can vary dramatically and the sudden onset of crippling pain that leads to people falling to the ground clutching their chest that we are familiar with from television are greatly exaggerated and actually very rare indeed.
The time between the beginning of symptoms and calling for help is the longest cause for delay in receiving treatment for acute heart attacks.
Symptoms of a heart attack
Heart attacks can feel different depending on the person. It may present as a sensation of pressure, tightness or squeezing in the center of your chest. Although the chest pain is often severe, some people may only experience minor pain, similar to indigestion.
The pain may spread to your left or right arm or may spread to your neck or jaw, back and abdomen.
It is possible to have a heart attack without experiencing ‘classic’ chest pain, though. This is more common in women, the elderly or people with diabetes.
You may feel sick or short of breath.
Other symptoms may include:
- Indigestion
- Sweating or clamminess
- Pressure on the chest
- Aching, pins and needles or numbness in the arm
- light-headedness,
- dizziness, shortness of breath,
- nausea
It’s the overall pattern of symptoms that helps to determine whether you are having a heart attack.
Do not worry if you have doubts. Assume that you are having a heart attack and dial 999 to ask for an ambulance immediately.
Mr Collinson, 47 from Blackpool:
Mr Collinson, a professional who is very active and healthy with no prior medical complaints was on a trip to Ireland with friends for a weekend. On the last night of the trip he had a few drinks and awoke the next morning feeling a little worse for wear.
He said: “I was sick and then had what felt like acid indigestion so I went to the chemist and got some off the shelf tablets. I assumed it was connected to the drinks I had the night before. I don’t normally drink to excess. I went about the rest of the day preparing for the return journey.”
He managed to put up with the irritation for the morning and carried his suitcase through the airport, through check in and flew back to Liverpool airport.
“It wasn’t at all like the classic crippling pain you expect from a heart attack.”
It wasn’t until he was nearly home that he realised the indigestion hadn’t eased and he began to feel pins and needles in his left arm.
“I knew then that this was something I should get checked out. But I still went home and had a drink and unpacked my car before going to A&E.”
Sixteen hours after he first started with symptoms Mr Collinson was in hospital undergoing an operation to have a stent placed in his coronary arteries (heart arteries) to clear the blocked artery.
He spent nine days in hospital and a further three weeks recovering at home. The normal time spent in hospital is three days.
Due to his late presentation Mr Collinson has permanent muscle damage to the left side of his heart.
He said: “I’ve been told that I could have had a cardiac arrest at any time and that would have been the end of me.
“The lesson really is that if you have symptoms that don’t go away when you expect they should then don’t hang about and get checked straight away.”
