Every year, approximately 785,000 Americans suffer a first heart attack. And 470,000 who’ve already had one or more heart attacks have another one. The scary thing is that 25 percent of ALL heart attacks happen “silently,” without clear or obvious symptoms.
Silent heart attack is described as the death of heart muscle due to complete blockage of blood supply to the heart muscle which does not produce any symptoms..
Since there is damage to the nerve supply to the coronary arteries which supplies blood to the heart the patient may not be get chest pain with even in severe heart attacks.
Around 15% percentage of patient having silent heart attack to the over all incidence.
In most of the situations the silent heart attack is diagnosed by EKG or ECG(Electrocardiogram) and heart stress test.
In this test, doctors are looking at how your heart rate and blood pressure increase during exercise, a good indicator of how your blood is flowing. You’ll also likely get a blood test for cardiac enzymes. These are proteins that are released when the heart is damaged.
Aside from this preventive screening, your best course of action is to know the symptoms of a heart attack and pay attention if you experience any of them. Call paramedics immediately if you feel chest pain, have shortness of breath or are unusually fatigued and they’ll walk you through the proper course of action. Ignoring these signs because of embarrassment or shame can kill you.
The certain symptoms of heart attack are severe chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting and nausea. Anyone who believes that he or she is having a heart attack should seek emergency medical attention.
But in the case of silent heart attack, there are often no clear symptoms or pain, sometimes a it is not painful, or the person experiencing it does not recognize the symptoms as heart-related, so he or she does not go to a hospital for treatment. That may lead to deadly cases regretfully.