Cardiac Arrest Essay

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CARDIAC ARREST Cardiac Arrest is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively. Also known as cardiopulmonary arrest, a cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death. Medical staff may refer to it as sudden cardiac arrest, or SCA. Its different from a heart attack, but may be cause by one. Being a medical emergency, cardiac arrest is reversible if treated early enough. Sudden cardiac death, or SCD, is when a patient dies due to a cardiac arrest. If a patient suffers from SCA for a prolonged period of time SCD will be the result. Try to provide circulatory support by administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, if patient goes unconscious. Follow this by defibrillation if nessecary. Some signs and symptoms of cardiac arrest are loss of consiciousness or fainting, no pulse, some have racing heartbeats. About an hour before some may have chest pain, shortness of breath, or SOB, nausea and vomiting. Call 911 immediately if you witness a person with these symptoms. After reaching a hospital and are diagnosed the doctor may send you to a cardiologist, one who specializes in diagnosing and treating heart diseases and conditions. There are many ways to test for and diagnose Cardiac Arrest. Some of these procedures are EKG, Echocardiography, MUFA Test, Cardiac Catherization, Blood Test, and Electophysiology Study. EKG, or electocardiogram, is a simple, painless test that detects and records the heart's electrical activity. It can show evidence of heart damage due to CHD, or coronary heart disease, and signs of a current or previous heart attack. Echocardiography, or Echo, is a painless test that uses sound waves to create pictures of the heart. These pictures identify poor blood flow and heart muscule that aren't contracting normally. MUGA Test, or multiple gated acquisition test,

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