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you feeling like you've pulled a muscle or ate bad food.
* A coronary, heart attack, occurs when the blood to the heart muscle is severely reduced or stops completely. Often, patients who get to the hospital at the first sign of coronary are treated with thrombolytic drugs, commonly known as clot-busters, which are given intravenously to break down blood clots that can cause a heart attack. For these medications to work, treatment must begin within three hours after the onset of symptoms, according to the American Heart Association. When a coronary artery is blocked, the heart muscle doesn't die instantaneously. Heart damage increases the longer the artery remains blocked. Methods for treating heart attack include balloon angioplasty and atherectomy. Balloon angioplasty is a procedure used to open clogged arteries by physically compressing artery-clogging plaque. Rather than flattening the plaque, atherectomy involves cutting through the obstruction and removing the plaque matter through the tube. Often, when arteries have deteriorated, a stent (permanent slender surgical-steel tube) is inserted into an artery to keep it open. As well as the use of clot-busting drugs, angioplasty, atherectomy and stents, heart surgery is often an option.

* Heart disease information can always be obtained from your physician. Your doctor may refer you to a heart specialist in your area. Information packets are available from the American Heart Association by calling your local branch or going on its Website at http://www.americanheart.org.

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