| AUTHOR |
MESSAGE
|
| supermom21664 |
 |
|
Posted: 7/19/2008 5:34 PM |
 |
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 46
.gif)
Total Posts: 1514
BFE
Texas
United States
offline
Invite To Chat Room
 Send Note
|
Is it possible for a piece of blockage to break lose and pass through your heart?
|
| hopeless_dreamer |
|
|
Posted: 7/20/2008 3:50 AM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Male Member
Age: 24
Total Posts: 703
Los Angeles
California
United States
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
I think when you say blockage, you are referring to a venous thrombus. When you are talking about it breaking off and passing through your heart, you are referring to a thromboembolism.
A thrombus is blood clot. Blood can clot in your veins (primarily veins, rarely arteries) with poor circulation and blood flow. When this happens, it is considered a venous thrombus. When a thrombus is big enough, it can cause occlusion of a blood vessel, though this is far rarer than the presence of a venous thrombus. Most often, venous thrombi form in the deep veins of the leg because of poor circulation. This gives rise to the common medical condition called a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
A thrombus, in and of itself, is rarely dangerous. What is dangerous is when all or part of a thrombus becomes disloged and is whisked away by the flowing blood. This is dangerous for two reasons. The first, and obvious one, is that flying debris (namely, a blood clot, now officially called a thromboembolus) in your veins is a bad thing and can cause damage. The second reason is more subtle. When a thrombus breaks off, the area left exposed from where it was attached contains lots of little chemical signals which cause even more clotting at that site.
Your specific question dealt with reason one of why a thromboembolus is bad. Let‘s say we had a person with a DVT in their leg. If this DVT becomes disloged (becoming an embolus), then it will travel up through the veins and into the right side of the heart. From there, it will go into the lungs (that‘s where blood from the right side of the heart goes) and will generally be filtered by the lungs with no harm done. Sometimes however, an embolus can be so big that it gets stuck in the arteries of the lungs, called a pulmonary embolism. If that happens, it can cause part of the lung to die from the lack of blood downstream from the site of blockage. Though this is bad, it is usually not life threatening (people generally have plenty of extra lung tissue). But what is worse is that some emboli can be so large, that when they get pumped up into the lungs, they get stuck at the very entrance between both lungs. This is called a saddle pulmonary embolism and is very lethal. It will cause death nearly instantly (within minutes) because no blood is getting to the lungs at all. Generally, there is no danger to the heart from a thromboembolism because the heart‘s chambers are very large. If any damage is done at all, it is done to the lungs. Surprisingly, everyone has tiny microemboli that occur all the time from their veins. These are all filtered by the lungs. It is only the big ones, generally from DVTs, that cause problems.
Although your question didn‘t ask for it, to make this dicussion complete, I‘ll go over the dangers of the suble second reason as well. When a thrombus breaks off, the area that is left exposed has signals that cause even more blood clots (they are highly platlet and fibrin activating). In something like a DVT in the leg, this is not a huge problem because the leg‘s veins are pretty big. Where this does cause trouble is when the thrombus is in an artery that supplies the heart, (i.e. one of the coronary arteries). These arteries are incredibly small and narrow. Often, these arteries are further narrowed due to arteriosclerosis. If a thrombus breaks off from here, the exposed area releases its signals and the artery is rapidly plugged up with a new clot. This is called coronary thrombosis. If this blocks the artery completely (as it often does), it will lead to a heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI) and it is a major cause of death in the US.
|
| Dr.WomanSaverM.D. |
|
|
Posted: 7/21/2008 6:46 PM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 100
Total Posts: 564
Doctor's Office
Costa Rica
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
| supermom21664 wrote: | |
Is it possible for a piece of blockage to break lose and pass through your heart?
|
Hi supermom21664.
As HD
explained, a blockage (aka blood clot or thrombus) can occur in your
veins. The veins are the blood vessels that lead to the heart. Once a
piece of blood clot breaks off the vessel wall and starts moving, it‘s
called an embolus. If this embolus passes through the heart, and ends
up in the lungs (its called a PE or pulmonary embolus) and this can
have devastating outcomes if the clot is big enough to occlude a large
vessel of the lung.
If you need more info please see:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000156.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pulmonary-embolism/DS00429
I‘m not sure why you‘re asking this question, but I hope this helps.
Let me know if you have any more specific questions.
Dr.WS
|
| supermom21664 |
|
|
Posted: 8/16/2008 7:49 PM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 46
Total Posts: 1514
BFE
Texas
United States
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
I have to have a neclear stress test done. What can I expect with this test?
|
| Dr.WomanSaverM.D. |
|
|
Posted: 8/20/2008 11:34 AM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 100
Total Posts: 564
Doctor's Office
Costa Rica
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
| supermom21664 wrote: | I have to have a neclear stress test done. What can I expect with this test? |
Hi supermom21664,
Here is some info about nuclear stress testing from a specialist.
I hope everything goes well. Let me know if you have any other concerns or questions.
|
| supermom21664 |
|
|
Posted: 9/5/2008 6:51 PM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 46
Total Posts: 1514
BFE
Texas
United States
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
My stress test is scheduled for Tuesday. The nurse told me that it will take up to 4 hours to complete. But she said that it will show everything dealing with my heart. So maybe I can get some answers now.
|
| supermom21664 |
|
|
Posted: 9/10/2008 4:26 AM |
|
Subject: Blockage |
|
|
|
WomanSaver MoFo
Female Member
Age: 46
Total Posts: 1514
BFE
Texas
United States
offline
Invite To Chat Room
Send Note
|
I had the test done yesterday. I was able to stay on the tread mill for the entore 12 minutes. But the last 3 my blood pressure shot way up and I started having chest pains. The diagnostician said that it was good that I went the entire 12 minutes but that it was suspicious that my BP jumped so high. The good news is that the test will show anything with the heart. It will show blockage and past damage that may have been done etc. So now I have to wait for the cardio to read the test and then they give me the results.
|