Near the winter solstice, China’s northern region will enter the “nine cold days”. In the sudden drop in temperature, is also prone to cardiovascular disease season, recently the hospital every day will be admitted to several cases of myocardial infarction patients, some people rescued successfully, some people can not be saved.

The success rate of rescue after myocardial infarction is closely related to the time of medical treatment. Most of the patients take the manifestation of myocardial infarction as other diseases, delaying the time to seek medical treatment and missing the opportunity to save their lives.

1. The key to myocardial infarction resuscitation is “in time”.

There was a case of sudden cardiac infarction and cardiac arrest during ECG examination in the hospital, on-site medical personnel immediately performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and thrombolytic therapy was successfully carried out within 30 minutes, after which the cardiac function was basically “unhurt” when the patient was discharged from the hospital.

In another case, the patient arrived at the hospital with chest pain for about an hour and was diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction. The doctor recommended interventional stenting, but the patient and his wife did not believe the doctor, thinking that the hospital was to “charge more money” before recommending stenting, and must call and ask relatives in the “understanding” to make a decision. As a result, it took more than an hour to get through on the phone, but at that time the patient’s condition suddenly deteriorated, and he developed A.S. syndrome and eventually died.

Myocardial infarction, a blockage in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, causing an interruption in the blood supply, resulting in necrosis of the heart muscle cells and affecting the pumping function of the heart.

There are two causes of coronary artery blockage: atherosclerotic plaque rupture, which induces platelet aggregation to form a thrombus; and intense contraction and spasm of the coronary artery, which results in lumen occlusion.

After a heart attack, as long as the blood vessels can be recanalised in time, cardiomyocytes can be salvaged and serious injury can be avoided. The shorter the time for recanalisation, the better; the success rate of recanalisation within 2 hours is higher; the longer the time, the worse the prognosis.

2. Performance in the event of myocardial infarction

1、Chest pain: the typical symptom of myocardial infarction is chest pain. It is manifested in the chest and precordial area with squeezing pain. The pain has no fixed point, about the range of a palm. It may be accompanied by shortness of breath, a feeling of breath-holding, and profuse sweating. This pain may be stable angina if it resolves within 15 minutes; if it lasts longer than 15 minutes, it is likely to be myocardial infarction.

2、Other parts of the pain: it should be noted that some people’s chest pain is not typical, but will radiate to other parts of the pain, such as the left shoulder, left arm, left finger, back, abdomen, neck, jaw and other places of pain, and even toothache. If pain in these areas occurs during exertion, you should also be vigilant and beware of heart attacks.

3、Dyspnoea: Some patients, especially the elderly, are not sensitive to pain, but they may have symptoms of dyspnoea, breathlessness and shortness of breath. If you always have the symptom of breath-holding when you are tired, or if you have the feeling of sweating and dying along with dyspnoea, you may also have myocardial infarction.

4、Tight throat: some patients with heart attack, there will be a sudden tightening of the throat, the feeling of tightness, as if being pinched, gasping for air, mostly after exertion. If rest for more than 15 minutes, still can be relieved, also be alert to whether the myocardial infarction.

3. Further confirmation of the diagnosis

Myocardial infarction may also be an angina attack when symptoms of suspected myocardial infarction occur. The usual method of differentiation is to take nitroglycerin under the tongue and rest for 15 minutes, if the symptoms are relieved, then it is angina pectoris, if the symptoms are not relieved, then it may be myocardial infarction. However, the best way to confirm the diagnosis is to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) immediately to determine whether it is ordinary angina or myocardial infarction.

If the ECG shows signs of severe myocardial ischaemia, there is a high probability of myocardial infarction, and it is necessary to call 120 for rescue immediately without wasting the 15-minute observation time.

Usually smoking, chronic diseases of middle-aged and elderly people, is the risk of cardiovascular disease, you can prepare a portable ECG measurement device, in critical moments may be able to save their lives.

To summarise, in winter, when cardiovascular diseases are more likely to occur due to cold temperatures, middle-aged and elderly people should be on guard against myocardial infarction. Most myocardial infarctions can be saved by remembering the symptoms of myocardial infarction, being more vigilant and seeking prompt medical attention. People at risk of cardiovascular disease can also prevent myocardial infarction by maintaining a regular medication regimen under a doctor’s supervision.