Thursday, October 6, 2011

Myocardial Ischemia vs Myocardial Infarction

Myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction are terms used in medicine describing either tissue death or tissue damage of the heart.
To explain each word, ‘myocardium’ is the part of the heart which contains the myocardial muscle. The heart contains four chambers and a large network of major and minor blood vessels, veins, and arteries. The word ‘ischemia’ means ‘damage’ or ‘destruction.’ The word ‘infarction’ means ‘death of a certain part of the organ.’
So in myocardial ischemia, there are damaged tissues in the myocardium. However, in myocardial infarction, there are tissue deaths which are more fatal in the part of the individual.
Myocardial infarction is also known as a heart attack while myocardial ischemia is also known as angina or chest pain. Angina is not a disease; it is a syndrome of heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases. In myocardial infarction, the blood supply to the heart is blocked permanently causing tissue death and interruption. In myocardial ischemia, blood supply to the heart is temporarily blocked only. Thus, the heart does not get oxygen causing chest pain.

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