Sudden Cardiac Arrests & Heart Attacks – What’s The Difference?

The terms ‘cardiac arrest’ and ‘heart attack’ are often used whenever someone suffers anything heart related. But there is a big difference between the two; the causes, symptoms and treatment.

A sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs when the heart suffers an electrical malfunction which disrupts the natural rhythm. The heart doesn’t exactly stop, it enters a state of ‘fibrillation’ where it becomes erratic and usually the victim will lose consciousness almost immediately. While in a state of fibrillation, the heart cannot pump blood to the brain or lungs, etc. and death can occur within minutes. In cases like this a defibrillator is used which, contrary to how they are portrayed in TV/film, actually stops the heart (defibrillation). Once fibrillation is stopped, the bodies natural instinct is to restart the heart. More often than not it will need a little help in the form of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

A heart attack is caused by a blocked artery preventing oxygen-rich blood from reaching the heart. The symptoms of a heart attack can slowly build up over hours, days or week, or it can be quite sudden. The heart doesn’t stop during a heart attack, it continues trying to pump. If the artery isn’t unblocked quickly, the section of the heart being deprived of oxygenated blood will start to die. The longer the artery remains blocked without treatment, the greater the damage to the heart. Once the heart attack has been diagnosed, “clot buster” thrombolytic medicines can be used to dissolve blood clots that are blocking the artery or Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) employed which involves threading a thin flexible tube with a small balloon attached through a blood vessel and inflating it to re-open the artery.

While these two conditions are different, they are linked: a sudden cardiac arrest can occur after a heart attack or during the recovery period. Heart attacks are not always followed by an SCA but heart attacks are the common cause of sudden cardiac arrests.

In either event your first step is to call an ambulance as quickly as possible!

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