What is acute coronary syndrome?

You might have heard of this medical term being tossed around… ACS… so… What is Acute Coronary Syndrome?

Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is broken up into three parts.

1. Unstable Angina - which is angina which is worse than the patient’s typical angina pain, or is new onset and unstable, or happens at rest!
2. NSTEMI - Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction. This is the baby-heart attack. Meaning that there is a blockage in one of your coronary arteries that needs to be fixed! Patients at this level are treated either medically or surgically by having PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention).
3. STEMI - this is the real heart attack, where permanent damage has already been done to your heart, and you are in dire need of intervention!

But again, this isn’t something that you would diagnose by sitting at home. You need an EKG to see ST segment elevations or depressions… and you need blood work to tell if your cardiac enzymes are elevated!

So the difference between UA (Unstable Angina) and an NSTEMI is ??

POSITIVE CARDIAC ENZYMES in an NSTEMI! Yes, it’s that simple!