Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsCardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack: Major DifferencesImmediate Actions to TakeFrom Heart Attack to Cardiac ArrestHeart Event DifferencesRecovery and PrognosisPrevention
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Cardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack: Major Differences
Immediate Actions to Take
From Heart Attack to Cardiac Arrest
Heart Event Differences
Recovery and Prognosis
Prevention
Cardiac arrestandheart attackare medical emergencies, but cardiac arrest is more fatal. A heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is disrupted, whereas cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops beating.Immediate intervention is critical for both events.
This article discusses the differences and symptoms of cardiac arrest vs. heart attack.
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A heart attack is a medical emergency that occurs when the blood flow to the heart is disrupted or the heart muscle gets too weak to pump blood efficiently. Heart attacks can lead to cardiac arrest, but not always.
Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
Cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops beating altogether. Heart attack (also called myocardial infarction) is one cause of cardiac arrest, but there are others, too, including:
Restrictive Cardiomyopathy
Emergency Symptoms
A heart attack can appear with several symptoms that signal a problem.Heart attack symptomsinclude:
Cardiac arrest, on the other hand, is typically sudden and unexpected. There may be warning signs like heart attack symptoms, but a person experiencing cardiac arrest may also:
Quick Check: Heart Attack or Cardiac Arrest?Symptoms of a heart attack, like chest pain and shortness of breath, can come before a heart attack or cardiac arrest. People who suffer from cardiac arrest suddenly lose a pulse, stop breathing, and become unconscious. If you see someone collapse, assume they are in cardiac arrest and call 911.
Quick Check: Heart Attack or Cardiac Arrest?
Symptoms of a heart attack, like chest pain and shortness of breath, can come before a heart attack or cardiac arrest. People who suffer from cardiac arrest suddenly lose a pulse, stop breathing, and become unconscious. If you see someone collapse, assume they are in cardiac arrest and call 911.
Warning Signs of a Heart Attack in Women
Causes and Risk Factors
Heart problems like coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy are leading contributors to heart attack and cardiac arrest. Still, the following can play a role in heart disease, heart attack, and cardiac arrest:
While heart-related factors often cause heart attacks, cardiac arrest has a broader range of causes, including:
Cardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack: Immediate Actions to Take
Heart attacks and cardiac arrest require emergency treatment. How they are treated will depend on the underlying cause, but chances of survival with cardiac arrest depend more on immediate actions.
Heart Attack Care
The heart requires a constant flow of oxygen-rich blood, and any disruption in this blood flow can cause permanent loss of cardiac muscle. Aheart attackoccurs when blood flow to the heart is interrupted. Heart attack treatment depends on whether you have apartialorcompleteblockage of blood supply to the heart and the extent of damage to the heart.
Treatment for heart attacks can range from medications, such as anticoagulants (blood thinners), to surgery, often requiring a combination of both.
Cardiac Arrest Care
Cardiac arrest requires immediate intervention to support heart function. The brain and other tissues become quickly damaged without blood flow, and high-qualitycardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)can keep blood flowing.
CPRCPR should be started as soon as possible after observing a cardiac arrest. EvenCPR from an untrainedperson can help. According to the American Heart Association, nearly 75% of cardiac arrests happen outside the medical setting, and only about 40% of those people get the immediate care, such as CPR, needed for survival.When basic life support (BLS) is administered effectively and immediately, it can double or even triple survival rates after cardiac arrest.
CPR
CPR should be started as soon as possible after observing a cardiac arrest. EvenCPR from an untrainedperson can help. According to the American Heart Association, nearly 75% of cardiac arrests happen outside the medical setting, and only about 40% of those people get the immediate care, such as CPR, needed for survival.When basic life support (BLS) is administered effectively and immediately, it can double or even triple survival rates after cardiac arrest.
CPR should be started as soon as possible after observing a cardiac arrest. EvenCPR from an untrainedperson can help. According to the American Heart Association, nearly 75% of cardiac arrests happen outside the medical setting, and only about 40% of those people get the immediate care, such as CPR, needed for survival.
When basic life support (BLS) is administered effectively and immediately, it can double or even triple survival rates after cardiac arrest.
Sometimes, CPR may be enough to resolve cardiac arrest, though most people with cardiac arrest require medications like epinephrine or amiodarone and treatments like defibrillation or mechanical ventilation.
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs)are available in some public areas. They can help guide untrained individuals through the steps of BLS and ensure rapid use of defibrillation if needed—ideally within five minutes of the cardiac event.
Even after recovery from cardiac arrest—also known as return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC)—a person will require additional monitoring and treatment to identify and treat any ongoing problems.
How Heart Attack Can Become Cardiac Arrest
Heart attacks usually only lead to cardiac arrest when the damage is severe, or blood flow to the heart is completely blocked. By interrupting blood flow to the heart muscle, a heart attack can trigger a dangerous heart arrhythmia calledventricular fibrillation, which immediately stops the heart from pumping.
Cardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack vs. Heart Failure
You may hear “cardiac arrest,” “heart attack,” and “heart failure” being used interchangeably, but they are different events, as follows:
More than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside of medical facilities each year, and only about 10% of these people survive.Survival depends on immediate treatment and the factors contributing to cardiac arrest. Even if a heartbeat is restored, cardiac arrest can cause additional complications that cause ongoing problems or even death.
Heart attacks that don’t progress to the point of cardiac arrest have abetter outlook. As many as 90% of people now survive heart attacks—a vast improvement from 50 years ago.
Advanced cardiac care—including cardiac catheterization, stents, and medication management—has helped improve survival rates. However, it also means more people live with cardiac or heart failure problems.
Scarring and loss of heart muscle after a heart attack can cause chronic problems, and it’s estimated that more than 1 million people are hospitalized due to heart failure yearly.
Prevention Measures
Caring for your heart can help you avoid heart attack and cardiac arrest. Prevention measures include:
If you are diagnosed with cardiac problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other chronic health issues, staying compliant with yourprescribed medicationregimen, making appropriate lifestyle changes, and seeing a healthcare provider regularly can help keep you on track to avoid severe complications like heart attack and cardiac arrest.
Summary
Cardiac arrest and heart attacks require immediate medical treatment to avoid severe and ongoing health problems. Heart attacks result from disrupted blood flow to the heart, whereas cardiac arrest has varying causes that ultimately stop the heart from beating. If you witness someone experiencing cardiac arrest, intervening with CPR or BLS may help save their life.
15 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.What is a heart attack?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Cardiac arrest.National Institutes of Health.Cardiac arrest: causes and risk factors.American Heart Association.Warning signs of a heart attack.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack.National Institutes of Health.What is cardiac arrest?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack symptoms, risk, and recovery.American Heart Association.Causes of cardiac arrest.ACLS Medical Training.Hs and Ts.American Heart Association.Heart attack treatment.American Heart Association.CPR facts & stats.American Heart Association.Algorithms.National Institutes of Health.Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: NHLBI studies tackle deadly public health problem.Bayat S, Hashemi Nazari SS, Mehrabi Y, Sistanizad M.Long-term survival rate following myocardial infarction and the effect of discharge medications on the survival sate.J Res Health Sci. 2022;22(4):e00567. doi:10.34172/jrhs.2022.102Harvard Health Publishing.How heart attacks became less deadly.
15 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.What is a heart attack?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Cardiac arrest.National Institutes of Health.Cardiac arrest: causes and risk factors.American Heart Association.Warning signs of a heart attack.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack.National Institutes of Health.What is cardiac arrest?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack symptoms, risk, and recovery.American Heart Association.Causes of cardiac arrest.ACLS Medical Training.Hs and Ts.American Heart Association.Heart attack treatment.American Heart Association.CPR facts & stats.American Heart Association.Algorithms.National Institutes of Health.Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: NHLBI studies tackle deadly public health problem.Bayat S, Hashemi Nazari SS, Mehrabi Y, Sistanizad M.Long-term survival rate following myocardial infarction and the effect of discharge medications on the survival sate.J Res Health Sci. 2022;22(4):e00567. doi:10.34172/jrhs.2022.102Harvard Health Publishing.How heart attacks became less deadly.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Heart Association.What is a heart attack?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Cardiac arrest.National Institutes of Health.Cardiac arrest: causes and risk factors.American Heart Association.Warning signs of a heart attack.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack.National Institutes of Health.What is cardiac arrest?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart attack symptoms, risk, and recovery.American Heart Association.Causes of cardiac arrest.ACLS Medical Training.Hs and Ts.American Heart Association.Heart attack treatment.American Heart Association.CPR facts & stats.American Heart Association.Algorithms.National Institutes of Health.Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: NHLBI studies tackle deadly public health problem.Bayat S, Hashemi Nazari SS, Mehrabi Y, Sistanizad M.Long-term survival rate following myocardial infarction and the effect of discharge medications on the survival sate.J Res Health Sci. 2022;22(4):e00567. doi:10.34172/jrhs.2022.102Harvard Health Publishing.How heart attacks became less deadly.
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Harvard Health Publishing.How heart attacks became less deadly.
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