Coronary artery disease can vary in its course and even become chronic. Early diagnosis is therefore all the more important and can be life-saving.
Progression of coronary artery disease
Coronary artery disease has quite different courses in individual cases:
- If the first symptom of coronary heart disease is a heart attack and if this is survived, the further course depends crucially on the extent to which it is possible to get the individual risk factors under control.
- If the coronary heart disease manifests itself primarily as angina pectoris in varying degrees, effective countermeasures can possibly already be initiated in the preliminary stages of a heart attack.
Despite optimal treatment, however, every patient with coronary heart disease carries a not exactly calculable risk of being affected by heart attacks, serious cardiac arrhythmias or heart failure, which can significantly limit life expectancy.
Serious complications possible
The most serious complication of coronary artery disease is myocardial infarction, which still causes many people to die before reaching a hospital. In the context of a heart attack, all possible forms of arrhythmia but also blood flow-related heart valve damage can occur. In some cases, an arrhythmia without preceding warning symptoms can also be the first and potentially fatal event of coronary artery disease.
In the chronic course of coronary artery disease after expired myocardial infarction, heart failure and recurrent malignant arrhythmias are at the forefront of potential complications.
Diagnosis of coronary artery disease
For early diagnosis of coronary artery disease, the physician will first ask the patient in detail about symptoms and other medical history. A physical examination and pulse and blood pressure measurements follow.
Of particular importance are the electrocardiogram (ECG) and ultrasound examination of the heart. Especially by stress examinations such as stress ECG, stress ultrasound examination or the so-called thallium scintigraphy, symptoms of coronary heart disease can be provoked and documented under medical control.
Unfortunately, there is no one hundred percent hit rate of these examination procedures, so that in individual cases the early, sometimes life-saving diagnosis of coronary heart disease cannot be made. However, when coronary artery disease is suspected and confirmed, only direct visualization of the coronary arteries and their possible narrowing during cardiac catheterization can confirm the diagnosis and provide the basis for an effective treatment plan.
