Difference between angina pectoris and myocardial infarction

In today's society, people all have one disease or another to varying degrees, from the elderly in their eighties to newborn babies. The most common symptom is pain. When it comes to pain, people may have a vague concept of it, thinking that it is nothing, just body pain from time to time. In fact, if the pain becomes serious, it can be fatal, so everyone should pay attention to whether this condition occurs in their body.

There are basically two common types of pain disorders. The first one is angina pectoris, and the second one is myocardial infarction. The two are similar in that they both belong to the category of pain, and the pain location, nature, radiation, and area are the same. But the differences between them are also huge.

Myocardial infarction is caused by thrombosis or persistent spasm in the coronary arteries due to atherosclerotic plaques, which leads to occlusion of the arterial lumen, interruption of blood flow, and myocardial ischemic necrosis.

Angina pectoris is caused by a short-term lack of blood supply from the coronary arteries, which cannot meet the metabolic needs of the myocardium, resulting in transient myocardial ischemia, but will not cause myocardial necrosis.

The symptoms of the two are basically similar, but we can still distinguish them. There are mainly the following points:

1. Myocardial infarction often occurs during rest, with no obvious immediate triggering factors, while angina pectoris has obvious triggers.

2. The pain of myocardial infarction lasts significantly longer than that of angina pectoris, usually lasting 1 to 2 hours or even longer, while angina pectoris only lasts about 15 minutes.

3. The pain of myocardial infarction is squeezing pain and very severe.

4. In case of myocardial infarction, sublingual nitroglycerin cannot provide relief, which is a relatively simple way to distinguish it from angina pectoris.

5. Myocardial infarction pain is widespread, often in the front chest or back, involving the entire precordial area, with basically no radiating pain, while angina pectoris has obvious radiating pain in the left shoulder and left arm

6. Myocardial infarction can cause irritability, restlessness, cold sweats, and even a sense of impending death

After understanding angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, I believe everyone will pay attention to this. However, knowing the difference between them is often not enough. Daily care and conditioning are also required to avoid the occurrence or aggravation of this disease in yourself. Family members should also be careful not to leave the sick person alone, in case no one knows when they are sick.