Word: infarcted
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Each infarct, or area of dead muscle, can interfere with the flow of electrical impulses that serve as the heart's ignition system. Normally, a current is generated for each beat at the "sinus node" (situated where blood enters the upper right heart). The charge then passes through the walls of the two upper chambers (auricles), making them contract. Then the signal is channeled through the auriculoventricular node (where the heart's four chambers meet), and passes through the ventricles' walls...
...things happens. A clot forms at the site, seals off the flow of blood to the heart and provokes a heart attack. Or (more commonly, thinks Keys) the deposits themselves get so big that they choke off the artery's flow to the point that an infarct occurs: the heart muscle is suffocated, cells supplied by the artery die, and the heart is permanently, perhaps fatally injured...
Toronto's Surgeon Gordon Murray has developed a still more daring procedure. The infarct caused by a coronary closure is actually cut out from the wall of the heart itself. Then healthy muscle from each side of the dead area is stitched together. The slightly smaller heart that results is more efficient...
...First Days. After the first few hours, the general location of the infarct (the damaged area resulting from loss of circulation) can be determined by use of the electrocardiograph (see chart). Although the electrocardiograph frequently fails to detect the atherosclerosis (narrowing of the coronary arteries) that precedes a thrombosis, it can accurately trace the healing process as a scar forms in the damaged area of the heart...
...complete can recovery be? It depends in part on the size of the infarct (it can vary from small marble size to the size of half a tennis ball); the larger the infarct, the more strain is put on the heart. It also depends on how efficiently the heart develops collateral circulation to feed and repair the damaged area. Even if convalescence is rapid and without complications, no doctor can commit himself on what "complete" recovery would be in terms of the responsibilities and pressures of the presidency. Said Dr. White: "I haven't seen any Presidents with coronary...