A STEMI (ST-elevation myocardial infarction) is the deadliest type of heart attack requiring immediate emergency attention. In a STEMI, the coronary artery supplying the heart with blood is blocked, leaving part of the heart unable to receive blood. A STEMI is diagnosed with the use of an EKG (electrocardiogram). If a patient is found to have a STEMI, the patient will require immediate emergency revascularization of the heart, either through the use of clot busting medication or with the use of catheters to mechanically open up the artery.

STEMI stands for ST elevation myocardial infarction. ST elevation refers to a change in a portion of the ECG tracing.

What is a STEMI?

What is the worst type of heart attack?

stemi

What does the ST stand for in STEMI?

ST segment.

What does the medical abbreviation STEMI mean?

STEMI stands for ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction. The ST in this case doesn't stand for anything; it refers to the part of the EKG tracing that is higher than usual (elevated). Patients with STEMI may benefit from treatment to restore flow to the heart muscle.

What is different between nstemi an stemi?

nothing. the 'n' is silent

What does the abbreviations STEM and non STEM mean in connection with ST segment?

I believe you are referring to STEMI (ST segment elevation myocardial infarction) and non-STEMI. These are two different forms of myocardial infarction - STEMI results in transmural (all the way through the cardiac muscle wall) injury, which results in elevation of the ST segment on EKG. Non-STEMI (NSTEMI), which used to be called a Non-Q-wave MI, is usually a subendocardial injury, which results in cardiac injury, but not as severe as STEMI. NSTEMIs do not have any elevation of the ST segment on EKG. These only have elevation of cardiac biomarkers on blood work.

What are EKG changes associated with an inferior STEMI?

An STEMI, or ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction, is a condition in which the blood flow to the heart is blocked. This typically occurs due to rupture of a lipid plaque in the wall of an epicardial artery. This causes muscle cell death due to lack of oxygen and other substrates necessary for cell growth/maintenance. The EKG can be used to localize the likely location of the blockage by looking at changes on the EKG. An inferior STEMI is characterized by ST elevations in the inferior limb leads, leads II, III, and aVF, associated with ST depressions (called reciprocal changes) in the lateral limb leads, I and aVL. An inferior STEMI most commonly is associated with a blockage in the right coronary artery (80% of the time). Inferior STEMIs have a slightly better prognosis than anterior MIs. There is typically less heart muscle lost in association with inferior STEMI than when the MI affects the bulkier left side of the heart.

What does steme mean in medical terminology?

I think you refer to a STEMI. This stands for an ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction. This is where a thrombus (clot) forms, usually due to a fat plaque (atheroma) cap breaking and a clot forming over it in one of the coronary arteries that supplies blood to the heart muscle, causing a heart attack. The term ST elevation refers to a characteristic waveform seen on ECG/EKG in these incidents.

Will an EKG rule out a heart attack?

An EKG cannot rule out a heart attack. It gives a snap shot of the hearts electrical circuit at that moment. An EKG can show some changes indicative that there may be cardiac problems, as well as if you are actively having a particular type of heart attack (known as a STEMI).But you can be having a heart attack with no EKG changes. The definitive answer comes from blood work done at the hospital.

How do you cure a heart attack?

* All patients being transported for chest pain should be managed as if the pain were ischemic in origin unless clear evidence to the contrary is established. * If available, an ALS unit should transport patients with hemodynamic instability or respiratory difficulty. * Prehospital notification by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel should alert ED staff to the possibility of a patient with MI. EMS personnel should receive online medical advice for a patient with high-risk presentation. * The American Heart Association (AHA) protocol can be adopted for use by prehospital emergency personnel. This protocol recommends empirical treatment of patients with suspected STEMI with morphine, oxygen, nitroglycerin, and aspirin. * Specific prehospital care includes the following: * ** Intravenous access, supplemental oxygen, pulse oximetry ** Immediate administration of aspirin en route ** Nitroglycerin for active chest pain, given sublingually or by spray ** Telemetry and prehospital ECG, if available * EMS protocol should be formulated to strongly consider taking patients with suspected MI/ACS, and certainly patients with STEMI, to facilities capable of PCI if geographically possible. * Prehospital thrombolysis allows eligible patients to receive thrombolysis 30-60 minutes sooner than if treatment were given in the ED; however, prehospital thrombolysis is still under investigation. (source: emedicine.com)

How does a doctor diagnose a heart attack?

This is quite a complicated question to answer briefly. A heart attack is most commonly due to a sudden blockage in one of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle. When one becomes blocked the blood supply to a part of the heart is cut off and because the heart muscle is constantly active, this area can rapidly start to die, hence the name "myocardial infarction" myocardium = "heart muscle", infarction = "death due to lack of blood supply". The underlying cause of this sudden blockage is most commonly a fatty deposit in these blood vessels called an atheroma. There are several things that a doctor will look at. The first and most obvious is how unwell the patient is. How bad are the symptoms? Does the pain go away when you give them drugs such as nitrates (which dilate blood vessels and let more blood through) or morphine? Are they very short of breath or is the person's blood pressure dropping? (this suggests the heart is damaged too much to be able to pump blood to the lungs and around the body). You also need to look at the patient as a whole. A fairly young patient with no previous cardiac history will make a better recovery than a diabetic 90 year old man who is a smoker, is obese, who has had 3 previous heart attacks, also has heart failure and has had a triple cardiac bypass (although an obese, diabetic smoker with this history wouldn't live to be 90, but it's just for illustration :) ) One of the most important tests is the electrocardiogram (ECG). This is difficult to explain without a knowledge of how the ECG works. Wikipedia does a fairly neat job of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocardiogram The ECG looks at electrical signals given off by the heart from several different angles. One view of the heart is called a "lead", so if there is an abnormality in an area, it will show up most in the direction of the lead that is looking at that side of the heart. If several of the leads have an abnormality it shows the area affected is large, so from the ECG you can sometimes determine whether a small or large proportion of the heart muscle is damaged. You can also tell whether there is an acute blockage in the heart that may benefit from giving drugs to break down the clot. This is called ST elevation (or an ST elevation MI, or STEMI). There are also some blood tests you can do. Some enzymes are released from the heart muscle when it is damaged which can be measured in the blood. These include one called creatine kinase and another called troponin. These tend to be higher when more muscle is damaged. However, going back to the first paragraph where I mentioned an atheroma, it is possible for somebody to have a very small amount of heart muscle damage because of a minor blockage, but a very unstable fatty deposit in the wall of the blood vessel, that might burst at any time and cause a large catastrophic blockage. So in summary, assessing severity of a heart attack can be difficult and you need to look at: 1) The Patient as a whole, taking into account age, past medical history, cardiac risk factors (mainly hypertension, diabetes, smoking, family history) 2) Severity of symptoms 3) ECG changes 4) Cardiac enzymes I'm sure there are more things that a cardiology specialist would say but I'm just a junior doctor so please anyone amend this as you like!

What is the diagnostic procedure for myocardiac infarction?

The myocardium is the muscle of the heart, so myocardial inflammation would be swelling of this tissue, for instance. A myocardial infarction is also known as a heart attack, where blood flow is blocked to the myocardium. The type of heart attack would depend on what abnormalities were found on EKG (ie: ST elevation=ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, or STEMI).

What happens during a heart attack?

In a heart attack (myocardial infarction) the heart is deprived of oxygen, and this eventually causes necrosis of the deprived cardiac tissues. This tissue death can result in heart failure and deadly arrhythmia.Basically plaque builds up in the coronary artery and when the plaque hardens it explodes and platelets (cells that help to clot arteries and veins when they are cut) come in and prevent further release of the plaque that has explodes. However, this clotting can block an artery completely and stop blood flow to a part of the heart. When the blood flow stops, so does the oxygen to that part of the heart. Because of the lack of oxygen to keep the muscle going, muscle cells die in the heart, that's what happens in the heart during a heart attack!When you have a heart attack the heart stops beating. It's because it clogs up the heart and you sometimes you will die or have brain damagewhen you have a heart attack some of your heart cells stay without oxygen (Hypoxia )which may hurt or kill them related to how fast you get a medical care .