Heart Attacks

Heart Attacks

What is a heart attack?
A heart attack is when your coronary artery gets blocked up which stops the flow of blood going to your heart, having a heart attack can cause the heart to stop which puts you into cardiac arrest.
Symptoms you can have during a heart attack:

Tightness or aching sensation.

Shortness of breath. 

Cold sweat.

Lightheaded or dizziness.

Shortness of breath.

and many more that you could have. Heart attacks can vary from mild or server symptoms, there are some people that are less likely to experience symptoms. People that are less likely usually are either old or have diabetes although this doesn't mean that they can and won't experience symptoms, they might find them selfs feeling shortness of breath. You can feel the discomfort when having a heart attack around the centre or towards the left side of your chest. This can also spread to other areas. It can go to your arms, neck, jaw, and back.

Treatment for heart attacks:

• Aspirin to help the blood from clotting.
• Nitroglycerin to help the flow of the blood.
• Treatment for chest pain.
• Oxygen therapy. 

Drugs like fibrinolytic or thrombolytic agents are another option of treatment this helps break down the blood clots. If you were to choose surgery then one of the options you will have would be coronary artery bypass graft this is when the doctor will get a new blood vessel from another body part to bypass the blocked coronary artery.

Diagnosed:

• X-rays and blood tests.
• Echocardiography, "echo" looks at the heart using ultrasound.
• ECG: This traces the beat and rhythm of the heart by measuring its electrical activity moving from the top to the bottom of the heart.

What is angina?

Angina is like a similar chest pain that occurs when having a heart attack. Instead of your coronary artery clogging up, it is when your vessels narrow. If you have angina you are at the risk of having a heart attack and the most common form of angina is temporary this is called stable angina if you have unstable angina then you are at a greater risk of having a heart attack.

What is heartburn? 

Heartburn is usually a burning pain caused by acid reflux. Most people will think that heartburn is related to your heart because of the feeling of the pain but it actually isn't. In the stomach, there is something that is produced called mucus this is to help protect the lining from the acid that helps digest food. The food pipe lakes this lining which cause acid reflux this can damage the lining. Why people with acid reflux experience pain is I think still unknown it could have something to do with your acid-sensitive nerves causing you to feel pain.

Heartburn symptoms:

The burning pain usually will start above your stomach and can possibly reach up to the back of your mouth. 

• Nausea
• Bloating 
• Belching

Different symptoms between heartburn and heart attack:

• Heartburn can be relieved by drugs that can reduce acid levels in the stomach.
• A heart attack does not cause bloating or belching, but these can happen with heartburn.
• heartburn tends to be worse after eating and when laying down, but a heart attack can happen after a meal, too.

Heart Dissection

Aim: My group is doing a heart dissection of a sheep. My aim when doing this I want to be able to successfully dissect a sheep's heart. 

Safety:

• Look out for where you make cuts (DONT CUT YOURSELF). 
• Wash your hands.
• Right equipment.
• Hair tied back.

Equipment:

• Goggles
• Gloves
• Dissection scissors 
• Scalpel 
• Dissection tray

Instructions: Hard

1. Use scissors to cut through the side of the pulmonary artery and continue cutting down into the wall of the right ventricle.
2. With your fingers, push open the heart at the cut to examine the internal structure. If there is dried blood inside the chambers, rinse out the heart.
3. Locate the right atrium. Notice the thinner muscular wall of this receiving chamber.
4. Find where the inferior & superior vena cava enter this chamber & notice the lack of
5. valves.
6. Locate the valve between the right and left atrium.
7. Use your fingers to feel the thickness of the right ventricle and its smooth lining.
8. Find the septum on the right side of the right ventricle. This thick muscular wall separates the right & left pumping ventricles from each other.
9. Inside the right ventricle, locate the pulmonary artery that carries blood away from this chamber. Find the one-way valve called the pulmonary valve that controls blood flow away from the right ventricle at the entrance to this blood vessel.
10. Using your scissors, continue to cut open the heart. Start a cut on the outside of the left atrium downward into the left ventricle cutting toward the apex to the septum at the centre groove. Push open the heart at this cut with your fingers & rinse out any dried blood with water.

Instructions: Easy

1. Get some newspaper to line the table.
2. Put on gloves to protect our hands.
3. Get the sheep heart and lay it flat on the newspaper-covered table.
4. Grab the scalpel.
5. Cut the top layer/s of muscle/s, The scissors might be better.
6. Then identify the heart chambers and the other interior things.
7. Discard the heart.
8. Clean up the utensils and take the newspaper off the table.
9. Take off gloves and scrub the living crap out of the table.
10. Also, wash your hands.

Observation:

 


Discussion:

The results of doing this dissection were good. I found it fun to explore and cut the heart. When doing this I was able to identify the right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium and left ventricle. I was also able to see the arteries, veins and capillaries I even was able to stick my fingers down them and identify them by feeling how thin or thick the walls were. The way blood travels around your heart is by it entering through the vena cava and then the blood flows to the right atrium, from there the blood goes to the right ventricle. Before the blood travels to the lungs it has to go to the pulmonary artery. Once at the lungs the blood goes to the pulmonary veins which enter the left atrium. Blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle. The left ventricle then contracts and sends oxygenated blood to the body through the aorta.  

Evaluation:
If I was to do this again I would want to try the harder instructions and try to identify more things about the heart and possibly see if I can find some health problems that the animal had. If you were wanting to try and do this then I think you should start with the easy instruction and work your way up.You could even try and find some of the tendons and veins and maybe try and make your cuts look nice and clean so you dont cut though anything you want to look at. Where does the thumping sound of your heart come from? How many times a day does your heart recycle your blood?