Compare and contrast between heart attack and stroke

Heart Attack
Also known as the myocardial infarction.

Occurs when the blood supply to the heart is severely

reduced or cut off. It is usually blocked by narrowing arteries or a blood clot. The heart muscle will damage due to the lack of oxygen and the person suffers from it will die.

Causes
The leading causes of heart attack is commonly the

coronary artery disease. This is the condition where the plaque forms on the wall of the blood vessels. This is called atherosclerosis. The plaque may burst and a blood clot will formed due to this matter. This may stop the blood flows through the arteries.

Coronary artery disease

Symptoms
Discomfort at the centre of the chest, feels like

pressure, squeezing or pain. Discomfort can extend to other part of the body for example shoulder, arms and back. Shortness of breath, sweating and fainting.

Stroke
Occurs when the blood flows to the brain is

interrupted or limited. Brain cells start dying minutes after a stroke. When the brain cells die, certain ability controlled by that area of a brain are lost. For example speech, movements and memory.

Causes
There are two types of strokes; i) ischemic stroke and

ii) hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic stroke

occurs when the brain gets too little blood.

Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when the brain gets too much blood.

Ischemic stroke
Common types Thrombotic stroke
Blood clots forms in an artery that carries blood to the brain. Mainly caused by atherosclerosis.

Embolic stroke

Blood clots or other particles forms in a blood vessel away from the brain, often in the heart.

Ischemic stroke

Hemorrhagic stroke
Occurs when the blood vessel in the brain leaks or

cranial arteriole burst. Mainly because of hypertension, uncontrolled high blood pressure or head injuries. Certain people are genetically predisposed to this stroke due to arteriovenous malformation.

Hemorrhagic stroke

Symptoms
Difficult in walking, sleeping and seeing.

Paralysis, weakness or numbness on one side of the

body. Severe vomiting, nausea and headache.

Similarities
Both caused by blood clots which are mainly due to

atherosclerosis. Cell dies due to the lack of oxygen. Once the cell dies, both disease are irreversible. Both disease can cause sudden death.

Differences
Heart attack Stroke

Caused from blood cut

Caused from a brain

off to the heart muscles. Feel absolute pain such as chest pain, breathlessness and etc..

bleed. Does not feel any pain but can cause neurological deficitsspeech, movement of the limbs and memory lost.

References
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/23/tool.

heart.attack.stroke/ http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-CausesA-Heart-Attack.aspx http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename= stroke http://www.differencebetween.net/science/health/d ifference-between-heart-attack-and-stroke/