Angina

Chest pain is the key symptom of angina

Angina - a feeling of pain, heaviness, tightness, burning or squeezing in the chest - is an indication that the sufferer has heart disease and is at risk of a heart attack.

Angina occurs when arteriosclerosis has caused so much narrowing of the coronary arteries that they are not able to supply enough blood to the heart muscle during exercise.

The pain can spread to the arms, neck, jaw, face back or stomach. In some people it is a dull, persistent ache.

Dr Tony Gershlick, consultant cardiologist and honorary senior lecturer at University Hospitals Leicester, said: "Angina is very debilitating and can effect your quality of life and the amount of exercise you can do and can impact on your diagnosis in terms of morbidity and mortality."

The condition is usually brought on by physical exertion, emotional stress or extreme temperatures when the demand for oxygen from the heart is greater then the blood supply available.

A patient may go for a walk and the limited blood supply from hardened arteries means that the increased blood supply needed does not reach the heart causing cramp, or angina.

Morbidity risk

The condition is associated with higher risk of morbidity in patients.

Changes to smoking, eating and other lifestyle factors can have a beneficial effect.

Variant angina pectoris, or Prinzmetal's angina, however, can occur when a person is at rest. It occurs as a result of coronary artery spasm and may occur frequently for six months or more.

People who develop heart rhythm disturbances at this time are at risk from sudden death, but survival rates for those who survive a heart attack during this period are very good.

Treatment comes in the form of drugs in the first instance, but if the condition is too severe then procedures such as angioplasties may be needed to correct the narrowing of the artery walls.