Recognising and responding to an angina pectoris attack

A known stable episode often follows a personal pattern, such as appearing with walking uphill and easing after rest or prescribed rescue medicine. Symptoms cannot reliably be separated from a heart attack without medical assessment when the pattern is unfamiliar or has changed.

Angina can cause pressure, squeezing, heaviness, or burning behind the breastbone. It may spread into either arm, the shoulders, jaw, neck, back, or upper abdomen. Breathlessness, sweating, nausea, dizziness, or fatigue may accompany it; some people have little obvious chest pain.

Stable angina is generally predictable for the individual. An episode that starts with less effort than before, lasts beyond the person’s usual pattern, becomes more intense, or appears at rest is a meaningful change and may represent an acute coronary problem.

Stop the activity and rest in a seated position. If you have been prescribed fast-acting angina medicine, take it according to your written plan. Keep your phone nearby, tell someone what is happening if possible, and avoid walking around to test whether the discomfort has gone.

Call UAE emergency services if this is a first episode, if it differs from your established pattern, or if the action plan does not relieve it as expected. Do not drive yourself. After a familiar episode resolves, record the trigger, symptoms, response to medicine, and any increase in frequency for your clinician.

Emergency care is needed for severe or persistent chest discomfort, symptoms at rest, fainting, marked breathlessness, cold sweating, confusion, or pain spreading to the jaw, back, neck, or arm. Seek help for a new episode even when you are unsure it is angina, because other urgent conditions can feel similar.

Request a clear written plan covering your usual triggers, how to use rescue medicine, the point at which to call emergency services, and which activities are currently suitable. Ask whether an ECG, medicine review, blood pressure management, or cholesterol treatment is relevant to your situation.