Dr. Richard L. Page, President of the Heart Rhythm Society

Dr. Richard Page, president of the Heart Rhythm Society commented this week about the two recently released Heart Rhythm Society consumer research reports regarding Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and Maryland residents.

Overall, the study showed that most Americans do not understand the difference between Sudden Cardiac Arrest and a heart attack. Knowing the difference and how to react, can often determine whether a person lives or dies.

(Q.)  What is the difference between a heart attack and Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

A Heart Attack

(A.)  Dr. Page: “We’re using the analogy as the difference between apples and oranges.  People know about a heart attack and they often mislabel SCA as a heart attack. A heart attack basically is when someone typically has chest pain, and it’s due to a plumbing problem. It’s due to the fact that typically one of the arteries to the heart is suddenly blocked, and the heart tissue that is supplied by that artery starts to die.  That causes pain, and it will cause damage. And it may eventually cause heart failure if one does not seek medical attention, go to the emergency room, get an EKG, potentially get a heart catheterization to open up that blood vessel with a balloon and a stint, and undo the process, which is death to part of the heart, due to a sudden blockage of one of the arteries."

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

(A.)    Dr. Page: “Now Sudden Cardiac Arrest is different in that Sudden Cardiac Arrest occurs really quite suddenly and is truly catastrophic, in that a patient who may be feeling completely well, will suddenly drop dead, lose consciousness, in a rhythm that if you looked at the heart, instead of pumping with each heartbeat, it’s suddenly just quivering. It’s not pumping.  It’s not dead yet, but it will be dead soon, and so will the patient unless you can get the heart back in rhythm. And that rhythm that it’s in is called ventricular fibrillation or VF.  So VF is the rhythm that causes Sudden Cardiac Arrest in most cases.  The difference between Sudden Cardiac Arrest and a heart attack is: In Sudden Cardiac Arrest, you need immediate attention for that patient.  You need to pump the blood for the patient immediately to keep blood going to the heart and the brain, and the rest of the body with CPR.  But most important, you need an electrical shock, typically from an AED, Automated External Defibrillator to shock the heart back into a rhythm that will then restore the pumping action of the heart and maintain blood flow to the heart and the brain, (which is most important) and the rest of the body.”

In Part 2 of this series, Dr. Page discusses the benefit of the Implantable Cardio Defibrillator versus the Portable Cardio defibrillator.