SteveR
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2005
- Messages
- 2,811
Nords said:
A close friend lost her husband of 35 to a sudden heart attack while he was out of town on business. He was found dead in his hotel room. Died in his sleep. No prior history of heart problems.
I read the autopsy report of my late wife. She died from septicemia from subclinical pneumonia that moved into her bloodstream. She had no spleen and the infection was fatal. The report indicated she hd 90% blockage in her coronary arteries. A few months before she had had a cardiac stress test which showed normal fucntion and blood flow. Not exactly true in here case. She was a walking heart attack waiting to happen only the septicemia got her first.
Unless you have had an arteriogram of your heart you don't reall know what shape they are in. Family history is one indication of the potential for heart problems as are other risks such as smoking, high LDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, poor exercise habits, diabetes, etc. Some folks get a warning shot across the bow and have a minor attack that generates all the testing to confirm the diagnosis. Others never have symptoms or don't have them bad enough to seek out medical attention leading to no treatment and a worsening of the condition to fatal proportions.
Even with annual physicals and carido tests, there is still a good chance you can have a potentially fatal heart condition that could take you out like a light. Most medical testing will tell you if you HAD a heart attack but are not as predictive as one might think. Electrical problems with the heart are easier to see than circulatory ones unless you get inside to see how clogged up the plumbing has become. Blood clots are also a big unknown. If you create on in your leg because you sit in an airplane without moving around for hours at a time and it breaks off and gets into your heart to plug up a major artery you are toast. Potential clots are really hard to predict.
Sorry to ruin your day but the state of the art for heart attack prediction does not seem as rosey as one might hope. Most of the effort has been on fixing a problem once it has been found. It is the finding part that still needs some work.
