What Is Angina And Causes Of Angina

Angina (an-JI-nuh or AN-juh-nuh) is chest pain or discomfort that occurs when an area of your heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood. Angina may feel like pressure or squeezing in your chest. The pain also may occur in your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. It can feel like indigestion.

It is common to equate severity of angina with risk of fatal cardiac events. There is a weak relationship between severity of pain and degree of oxygen deprivation in the heart muscle (i.e. there can be severe pain with little or no risk of a heart attack, and a heart attack can occur without pain).

Angina also can occur in people with valvular heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (this is an enlarged heart due to disease) or uncontrolled high blood pressure. These cases are rare, though.

What causes angina?

Coronary artery disease

Coronary arteries supply oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. Coronary artery disease develops as cholesterol is deposited in the artery wall, causing the formation of a hard, thick substance called cholesterol plaque.

Research suggests that damage to the inner layers of the coronary arteries causes CAD. Smoking, high levels of fat and cholesterol in the blood, high blood pressure, and a high level of sugar in the blood (due to insulin resistance or diabetes) can damage the coronary arteries.

Increased extravascular forces, such as severe LV hypertrophy caused by hypertension, aortic stenosis, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or increased LV diastolic pressures
Reduction in the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, such as elevated carboxyhemoglobin or severe anemia (hemoglobin,

By: User name - Peter Hutch

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