Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease varies in signs, symptoms and in severity. You may have no symptoms, otherwise referred to as silent ischaemia, where you do not have any symptoms although blood supply to your heart may be restricted.

You may also experience the following symptoms when you have coronary artery disease:

• Shortness of breath or breathlessness on exertion or when lying down: Occurs when the heart fails due to damage of heart muscles
• Decreased effort tolerance
• Pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper abdomen or back
• Chest pain (angina) on exertion with or without radiation to the left arm: Usually brought about by physical or emotional stress. It feels like a heavy weight on your chest.
• Severe chest discomfort lasting more than 10 to 20 minutes, which may be due to a heart attack.
• Heart attack: Caused by a blood clot or rupture in a narrowed coronary artery. The part of the heart muscle fed by that artery dies. Pain from a heart attack is often described as a crushing pain and may feel similar to angina, but lasts longer.

Should you have severe chest discomfort, call an ambulance to bring you to the nearest hospital.