OVERVIEW | SYMPTOMS | DIAGNOSIS | TREATMENT

Almost 1 million Americans have heart attacks every year. It is estimated that about every 34 seconds somebody in the United States has a heart attack. For  patients who get to a hospital quickly, advances in treatments have helped lower the number of deaths from heart attack. Today, those who recover from a heart attack are more likely to return to their past state of health than ever before.

Why Choose St. Luke's for Heart Attack Treatment?

ST-elevation myocardial infarction -- referred to as STEMI -- is a severe heart attack caused by a blocked blood supply to the heart muscle. St. Luke's STEMI Program has streamlined processes to ensure heart attack patients are treated quickly.

• Rapid response to heart attack. National standards set forth by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology recommend that a blocked artery be opened in less than 90 minutes from a patient’s initial admission to an emergency department to minimize damage to the heart muscle. This is referred to as door-to-balloon time. St. Luke’s door-to-balloon time consistently averages under 60 minutes.
• Emergency treatment 24/7. St. Luke’s is the only hospital in Houston with an in-house STEMI rapid response team prepared to perform an emergency angioplasty to unblock a heart artery 24 hours a day.
• Direct line for emergency medical services. St. Luke’s EMS hotline allows first-responders to directly access the hospital’s STEMI rapid response team and take heart attack victims directly to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory for treatment on arrival, bypassing the emergency department.
• STEMI Transfer Network. St. Luke’s 24-hour transfer hotline facilitates rapid transfer of heart attack patients from other hospitals’ emergency departments. Typically, the emergency transfer approval process can take up to an hour to complete before a hospital can request transport of a patient by helicopter. Hospitals in St. Luke’s STEMI transfer network have access to a streamlined process allowing patients immediate transfer and admission to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory for angioplasty. Hospitals desiring information about participating in St. Luke’s STEMI Transfer Network can contact Larry Brown, RN, STEMI coordinator: (817) 355-8835.

What Causes a Heart Attack?
A heart attack is also called a myocardial infarction (MI) or an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Many heart attacks are caused by a complete blockage of a vessel in your heart, called a coronary artery. A blocked coronary artery prevents oxygen-rich blood and nutrients from reaching a section of the heart. If blood cannot reach the heart muscle, it will die.

Heart attacks causes:

• A fatty buildup called plaque. Plaque can severely narrow or block a coronary artery, and the blockage shuts off all blood flow to the section of heart muscle fed by the artery.
• A blood clot. The clot can block an artery already narrowed by plaque. The blood clot may come from another part of the body, carried by blood flow through the narrowed artery. The blockage shuts off all blood flow to the section of heart muscle fed by the artery.
• A clot formed at the site of "soft" plaque.  This plaque, which has a thin covering over it, is called vulnerable plaque.When vulnerable plaque ruptures, it can cause a blood clot to form. The clot can block the blood flow to the section of heart muscle fed by the artery.
• Coronary artery spasm. This condition involves a coronary artery going into spasm and narrowing. Because of this narrowing, less or no blood can reach parts of the heart muscle. Doctors do not know what causes coronary artery spasm, but it can happen in arteries with or without signs of plaque buildup.

Two types of heart attacks by severity:

• STEMI - ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.  In a STEMI, the most severe type of heart attack, a coronary artery is completely blocked by a blood clot, so all of the heart muscle that usually receives blood from the affected artery will begin to die. Doctors can tell if you are having a STEMI because of the characteristic changes that show on an electrocardiogram (ECG). One change is an elevation in the ST segment. This elevation indicates that a large amount of the heart muscle is being damaged.
• NSTEMI - Non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. In this type of heart attack, the coronary artery is only partly blocked, so only part of the heart muscle being supplied by the affected artery may be damaged. An NSTEMI does not produce the ST segment elevation on an ECG. This can sometimes make it hard for doctors to determine if a person is having a heart attack or if they are having an episode of angina.

Learn more about this topic at the website for Texas Heart® Institute, TexasHeart.org.

Find a Heart Specialist:   (832) 355-DOCS (3627)
International Patients:     (832) 355-3350