Intense psychological stress can damage the coronary arteries.
- The right and left coronary arteries, which branch off at the aorta as it leaves the heart, supply the heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood.
- Coronary artery disease that narrows one or more of these arteries can obstruct blood flow, causing chest pain (angina) or heart attack (also called myocardial infarction).
While back to school is often stressful, a case study demonstrates once again that too much pressure can lead to serious health problems. The BMJ case reports has thus just associated in a fifty-year-old woman a “spontaneous coronary artery dissection” has a “psychological stress” intense.
Chest pain
“A 52-year-old woman who had a history of hypertension presented to our hospital with chest pain,” report the doctors. “Although the patient’s grandmother had a myocardial infarction in her 60s, the patient had no history of diabetes, dyslipidemia or smoking,” they specify.
The episode of chest pain occurred during her father’s funeral, which affected her deeply. The patient’s chest tightness persisted on admission to hospital. Pulse was regular, 100 beats/min, and blood pressure was 160/107 mm Hg.
No sequelae
An emergency coronary angiography notably revealed total occlusion of segment 7 of the left anterior descending artery. Fortunately, after surgery, “The patient was discharged from the hospital eight days later without any complications”, welcome the doctors.
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