The “dangerous” disease makes the guy after playing sports, it’s difficult to breathe, painful

The University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy) said that it recently received treatment for Mr. Tran Van H. (30 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City).

Angina, difficulty breathing while playing sport

According to his medical history, Mr. H., when he finished playing sports, often had symptoms of pain behind the sternum, a feeling of choking and difficulty breathing. The patient said that he often feels the above symptoms when exercising vigorously, and the frequency of angina is increasing, pain even at rest, so he decided to get checked.

At the hospital, the patient was subjected to a number of clinical examinations and required coronary angiography along with intravascular ultrasound. Thereby, doctors diagnosed the patient with signs of unstable angina, 80% coronary artery stenosis. Mr. H. was quickly intervened by placing a stent and prescribed medication. After the intervention, the patient had no chest pain, improved exercise capacity, and quickly recovered.

Dr.BS Tran Hoa, Head of Endovascular Intervention Unit, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said that angina is a typical sign of coronary artery disease. According to many studies, coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world (about 30%), higher than other diseases such as infections, tuberculosis, cancer…

Angina attacks are divided into 2 main groups: stable and unstable. In which, stable (chronic) angina is the pain that occurs when the patient exerts himself, does heavy work or is under stress, psychological stress. When the patient is resting or taking vasodilators, the pain will be reduced. The pain may last for a few minutes, several times a day, or every few days or weeks.

Unstable angina is pain that occurs at any time, even when the patient is resting. The pain lasts for more than 20 minutes, is intense, can be accompanied by many other symptoms such as shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, nausea, fainting, etc. The pain does not decrease even when the patient stops exercising. and use vasodilators. This is an emergency, possibly life-threatening, patient needs to go to the hospital early for timely diagnosis and treatment.

May cause cardiac arrest, sudden death

MSc.BS. Nguyen Cong Thanh, Department of Interventional Cardiology, added that with cases of unstable angina, if not detected and treated promptly, it can lead to myocardial infarction, arrhythmia causing cardiac arrest. or sudden death.

There are many different causes of angina pectoris, the most common being coronary atherosclerosis, which leads to the heart being starved of oxygen. The main reason leading to coronary atherosclerosis is the long-term deposition and accumulation of cholesterol. Therefore, angina often occurs in the elderly. However, an increasing number of younger patients are also developing coronary artery disease.

Risk factors for angina as well as coronary artery disease fall into two groups, including those that are not modifiable (older age, male sex, family history of early cardiovascular disease) and modifiable (hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle). The more risk factors a person has, the higher their chances of developing angina as well as coronary heart disease.

To treat angina caused by coronary artery disease, it is necessary to apply a combination of drug treatments and lifestyle modifications. In the case of patients in the high-risk group, interventional procedures to revascularize the coronary arteries will be applied depending on the progression of the disease. In addition, patients need to have a healthy diet with foods low in cholesterol, low in salt, and increase vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. A healthy exercise regimen is required: increase exercise to improve circulation.

Depending on your ability to exert yourself, you can choose gentle and moderate exercises such as brisk walking, yoga, cycling, swimming…, no smoking. Patients need to avoid staying up late, excessive psychological stress.