Every time Sourav Ganguly is taken to the hospital, we learn more about heart disease. Sorry, if that sounds heartless.  Some newspapers/media will say he had a heart attack and still others will say that he had a cardiac arrest. The heart doctors (cardiologists) will correct and say that it was Myocardial Infarction. 

 

As a medical translator, I do not come across these terms too often. But I have learnt to be very careful with medical terms. I lost a big project (and lakhs of potential money) because I did not realize the difference between ureter and urethra. (That's what happens when you consult Dr Google and translate! Aside -- how much Dr Google must be doing to people's health....if they are not careful.)

Basically, here is an excellent article which you may want to read to understand the difference between the 3 terms and learn more about heart disease.

 

Heart attack versus cardiac arrest

 

by Julie Corliss Executive Editor, Harvard Heart Letter

 

 I made some notes from the above article for your benefit:

 Most people who have a heart attack survive. The bad news? “Any heart attack can be fatal, no matter how big, how small, or where it occurs in the heart,” says Dr. James Januzzi, a cardiologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. 

 

A heart attack (what doctors call a myocardial infarction or MI) is defined as damage to part of the heart muscle caused by inadequate blood flow to that area. Most of the time, this happens due to a blockage in one of the heart’s arteries. Known as a type 1 heart attack, such blockages typically occur when cholesterol-laden plaque lining an artery ruptures. A clot forms, obstructing the vessel.

 

While a heart attack is a plumbing problem, a cardiac arrest is an electrical problem. Cardiac arrest happens when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions, causing it to beat rapidly and chaotically — or to stop beating altogether. Without blood circulating to the brain, lungs, and other organs, the person gasps or stops breathing and becomes unresponsive within seconds.

 

A heart attack is a common cause of cardiac arrest, but most heart attacks do not lead to cardiac arrest. Other possible causes of cardiac arrest include heart failure, a clot in the lungs, a serious imbalance of potassium, magnesium, or other minerals in the blood, a drug overdose, or a blow to the chest.

 

 Common heart attack symptoms include:

• uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, or pain in the chest
• pain or other uncomfortable sensations in an arm, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach
• shortness of breath
• sudden nausea or vomiting
• lightheadedness or dizziness
• unusual fatigue.

 

 

Signs of cardiac arrest are a

sudden loss of responsiveness and abnormal breathing (either not breathing or only gasping).

 

Dr Devi Shetty and Sourav Ganguly are recommending preventive checkups so that the mild attack which Dada suffered does not happen to you and me. 

 

SP Kalantri @spkalantri, a Physician, tweeted:

And now a leading Indian cardiac surgeon strongly bats for annual screening CT angiography to assess coronary artery disease and to preempt #heartattack. "Don't run yourself out the way #dada did; go for annual test," he says. If they don't have bread, then let them eat cake.

 

He shared Dr Devi Shetty's appeal video too. I loved Dr Kalantri's comment....when people can't afford simple tests (medicines), how can you tell them to have expensive CT angiography!

 

Moreover, preventive checkups are controversial. Cholesterol and statins too are controversial. 

 

Somalaram Venkatesh @serioustaurean

Chief of Cardiology. Aster-RV Hospital, Bangalore #Cardiologist by day & Blogger/Bibliophile by night. LowCarb advocate, National High School/PGIMER alumnus

 

‘Preventive’ health checks are bunk. Advocating CT scans generically for everyone is bad advice. We haven’t learnt from past experience the harms of not understanding implications of screening tests.

 

A relative had suggested 2D Echo for me! I checked on Twitter and Dr Venkatesh said that preventive tests were not useful. I quoted him anonymously in my previous blog on Have a Heart. Take care of it. Maybe I have not been convincing enough on the subject. 

 

Interestingly, Sourav Ganguly has a family history of ischaemic heart disease (for you and me, "heart disease".  In such a case, why did he not take proper care? What went wrong? We will never know. Dr Devi Shetty is God to many. He is idolized by the media. He will never tell.  Er, just as we have a rule that we don't speak ill of the dead, similarly, we do not speak ill of ill celebrities. Celebrities cannot make any mistake.  They do not drink. They do not party.