What should you know about STEMI and angina?

Angina commonly causes pressure, tightness, heaviness, or discomfort in the chest when the heart needs more oxygen, such as during exertion. It may improve with rest or prescribed medicine, but any new, severe, prolonged, or changing chest symptom needs medical assessment.

STEMI means a heart attack with a characteristic pattern on an electrocardiogram, often caused by sudden blockage in a coronary artery. Heart muscle can be damaged when blood flow is interrupted. Risk factors such as hypertension, smoking, diabetes, and high cholesterol may contribute, but symptoms can occur without a known history of heart disease.

If you have unexplained chest pressure or tightness, stop activity, sit down, and seek emergency help. Do not drive yourself. Follow only medicines previously prescribed for this situation and tell emergency staff about allergies, heart conditions, and current medicines.

After assessment, care may include an ECG, blood tests, medicines to restore or protect blood flow, and a procedure when needed. Longer-term treatment can involve blood-pressure medicine or statin therapy, alongside a plan for activity, smoking cessation, and other risk factors.

Call emergency services immediately for chest pressure or tightness that is severe, persistent, or returning, especially with breathlessness, sweating, nausea, faintness, or discomfort spreading to the arm, back, neck, or jaw. Treat these symptoms as urgent even if you are unsure whether they are angina.

Do not wait for a routine appointment to assess a possible heart attack. Symptoms can be less typical in older adults, people with diabetes, and some women, so sudden unusual breathlessness, weakness, or exhaustion also deserves urgent attention.

Ask whether your symptoms fit stable angina or need emergency evaluation, what your ECG and blood tests show, and how to use prescribed medicines. Discuss blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, exercise, and the warning signs that require calling emergency services.