What Is Angina? Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
Medically Reviewed By
Dr Divya Rohra
Written By Meenakshi
on May 5, 2022
Last Edit Made By Meenakshi
on Jan 9, 2025
Key Facts -
- Angina is not a disease but rather a symptom of an underlying condition that affects thousands of people.
- There are different symptoms in both men and women.
- Emotional stress can affect angina
- As per the WHO report, in 2019, 17.9 million people died from heart disease, of which 85% were fatal heart attacks.
What Is Angina?
Angina is also called Ischemic chest pain. It happens as a result of a reduction of oxygen-rich blood flow to the heart. It can feel like a heart attack or discomfort, with pressure and squeezing pain in your chest.
Angina is a typical symptom of coronary artery disease, the most common heart disease. It happens when something blocks your arteries, or there is not enough blood flow in the blood vessels that brings oxygen-rich blood to your heart.
What Causes Angina?
Angina is caused by underlying heart disease. When cholesterol or fat deposits, or any other causative factor, form hard plaques and affect the flow of arteries by narrowing these arteries.
As a result of arteries narrowing, it becomes harder for the oxygen-rich blood to reach the heart. If the blood carries low oxygen to your heart, the heart muscle cannot work correctly. In turn, this results in angina.
- Stable Angina: The most common type of angina. It happens when your heart works harder, such as when you exercise or experience emotional stress. Your heart needs more oxygen to work faster, but the blocked artery can not supply the amount of oxygen-rich blood required by the heart. It lasted a short time and disappeared sooner.
- Unstable Angina: It is a medical emergency. In this type of angina, chest pain is usually more severe. It is sometimes called an acute coronary syndrome, and it usually occurs while resting. It lasts longer than stable angina.
- Variant Angina: It is also called Prinzmetal's variant angina. It can be very severe pain. It almost always occurs when a person is at rest, and it is a rare type of angina, representing about two out of 100 cases of angina. Usually, it occurs in younger patients.
What Are The Symptoms Of Angina?
Angina's symptoms are chest pain and discomfort associated with squeezing, pressure, or burning. There are different symptoms of angina in men and women.
- Tiredness
- Indigestion
- Nausea
- Breathlessness
- Back, shoulder, neck, arm, or jaw pain
- Sweating
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Abdominal pain
- Discomfort in the neck and back
- Stabbing chest pain instead of pressure chest pain
Who Is At Risk Of Angina?
As angina is a symptom of the underlying heart condition, it is always best to evaluate the risk factors to avoid its occurrence. So, here are some risk factors that can increase your risk of heart disease and angina:
- Stress: If you are suffering from too much stress, it can increase your risk of angina. During stress conditions, your body releases a stress-releasing hormone that can narrow the blood vessels and increase the risk of angina.
- Obesity: Majorly, obesity is related to high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and diabetes. As a result of these conditions, the heart will have to work harder, which increases the risk of angina and other cardiovascular diseases.
- Diabetes: Having diabetes increases your risk of angina as it causes your blood vessels to lose their elasticity, resulting in atherosclerosis (formation of plaque in the blood vessels) and angina.
- High Blood Cholesterol: A significant part of the deposits that can narrow your arteries is cholesterol. This high level of cholesterol can affect the heart, which may lead to angina.
- Low Physical Activities Or Exercise: When you do not do physical activities regularly or exercise daily, this may increase the risk of cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes that can affect our hearts too.
- Use Of Smoking & Tobacco: Smoking and chewing tobacco damages the walls of arteries, narrows the arteries, blocks the blood flow resulting in an increased risk of angina.
- High Blood Pressure: In high blood pressure, the wall of the arteries is damaged and narrowed due to the formation of plaques. Your artery walls become less elastic and limit the blood flow all over the body, including the heart, resulting in angina and other heart-related diseases.
How To Diagnose Angina?
To diagnose angina, your doctor will start with a regular physical checkup. There are some tests also used to confirm whether you have angina:
- Blood Test: The blood test can identify a level of enzymes, such as cholesterol, troponin that leak into the blood and cause severe angina.
- Electrocardiogram: This is a record of the electrical signal generated by your heart as they travel through the heart. If it is interrupted then, this may be a sign of angina or a heart disorder.
- Coronary Angiography: This uses an x-ray image to examine the inside of your heart's blood vessels. During this procedure, a dye is injected into the heart's blood vessels to produce a detailed image of the heart that helps diagnose the reason for angina.
- Cardiac MRI: This procedure helps in getting detailed images of the heart structure and its blood vessels.
What Are The Complications Of Angina?
Angina can be a serious health hazard affecting the body and requires immediate treatment and regular monitoring. Complications of angina include:
- Heart-attack
- Heart failure
- Irregular heartbeat
- Sudden death due to heart failure
What Is The Management For Angina?
The management of angina depends on its cause and type, as stable angina is possible to manage with lifestyle modifications. In contrast, unstable angina requires urgent management to avoid further complications.
The management of angina involves medicines and surgery.
- Anti-platelet drugs- These drugs are used to prevent the formation of a blood clot.
- Nitrates- A group of drugs to relax the blood vessels and increase blood flow.
- Beta-blockers - A class of drugs used to manage high blood pressure, causing the heart to beat slower with less force. Additionally, they can improve blood flow by widening blood vessels
- Calcium-channel blockers - This medication group lowers blood pressure by preventing calcium from entering the heart and blood vessels. As a result, blood vessels relax and open up to improve blood flow.
- ACE inhibitors- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors relax the blood vessels to improve blood flow and reduce the risk of angina.
- Symptomatic treatment
Surgical Management Of Angina-
Certain medical procedures, including angioplasty and coronary artery bypass surgery, may be used to treat angina.
- Angioplasty:Also referred to as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In this procedure, a small balloon is inserted into a blocked artery, and then a small wire mesh coil is usually inserted to keep the artery open. It will help in improving blood flow in your heart, reducing angina.
- Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery:In this medical procedure, a vein or artery from somewhere else in your body bypasses a blocked heart artery. After this procedure, the flow of the blood increases into the heart, and this reduces angina.
What Are The Preventive Measures For Angina?
The risk of angina is somehow prevented by making healthy lifestyle choices. So if you are at risk of angina, here are some healthy life choices for you: choices are:
- Check your blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol level, etc., regularly.
- Do not overeat or be overweight; that can affect your heart negatively.
- Maintain a healthy diet and weight. You can avoid sugar beverages, sugary grains, and processed or red meats.
- Do not smoke
- Avoid chewing tobacco
- Limit your alcohol consumption.
- Reduce your stress level
- Increase physical activities or exercise as recommended by your health care person.
How Can We Help You Deal With Angina?
Redcliffe Life Diagnostics provides you with all the needed diagnostic tests needed to diagnose heart conditions.
As we know, angina prevention and management require monitoring blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure, and Redcliffe Life Diagnostics can help you with these things with their health checkup packages.
Conclusion
Angina is a serious symptom, a warning signal given by the body to keep a heart in check. There are two common types of angina. One is stable angina, the relatively most common type of angina that requires treatment and regular monitoring but is preventable with lifestyle modifications. The second one is unstable angina, which requires urgent treatment as it can be fatal.
Whenever you feel any chest pain, be sure to seek medical advice immediately to decrease the severity of the disease. Also, make sure to take a regular health checkup to rule out the health of your heart.
