Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
Related Media: Understanding Angina
Pectoris?
Symptoms may not appear in early stages. This is because the
disease gets worse over time. A person may not know they have CAD until they start
having problems. Over time, CAD may lead to:
Chest Pain
Angina is chest pain or discomfort that
feels like squeezing or pressure. It is most often felt behind the breastbone. It may
sometimes be felt in the shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back. It is a sign that heart
tissue is not getting all the oxygen it needs. People who have angina are at an
increased risk of having a heart attack .
Types of angina are:
-
Stable angina or angina pectoris —happens with activity or stress and goes
away after a few minutes of rest
-
Unstable angina —happens at rest and may last longer and be more painful
-
Variant or Prinzmetal angina —severe pain that happens at rest, often in
the middle of the night, and is often caused by a spasm of a coronary vessel
-
Microvascular angina —caused by spasms in very small arteries of the heart
Heart Attack
Many people do not know they have CAD until they have a heart attack. This is a blockage of blood flow to the heart that
can cause severe damage or death.
Symptoms are:
Squeezing, heavy chest pain behind breastbone, that usually comes on quickly
especially with:
Exercise or exertionEmotional stressCold weatherA large meal
Pain in the left shoulder, left arm, or jaw
Shortness of breath
Sweating, clammy skin
Nausea
Weakness
Loss of consciousness
Anxiety, especially feeling a sense of doom or panic without apparent reason
Unusual symptoms of heart attack—more common in women:
Stomach pain
Back and shoulder pain
Confusion
Fainting
References
C-reactive protein (CRP) as cardiac risk factor. EBSCO
DynaMed website. Available at:
https://www.dynamed.com/evaluation/c-reactive-protein-crp-as-cardiac-risk-factor. Accessed
April 27, 2022.
Coronary artery disease (CAD). EBSCO DynaMed website.
Available at: https://www.dynamed.com/condition/coronary-artery-disease-cad. Accessed April
27, 2022.
What is coronary heart disease? National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute website. Available at:
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/coronary-heart-disease. Accessed April 27, 2022.