“It is an icing and yet real medical paradox”.
“”This risk is to be known absolutely ” warns the emergency doctor François-Xavier Moronval. We tend to think that a heart problem is always manifested by pain in the chest. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes cardiac arrest can be “invisible”. The expression “invisible cardiac arrest” is not an official medical term but it is used to describe a sudden cardiac arrest which occurs without the usual alert symptoms that would be associated with a heart problem. The term “invisible” refers to the warning symptoms which, unlike a conventional heart attack, are absent or so subtle that they are not recognized.
“”The patient’s heart seems to beat, the electrocardiogram is formal, there is indeed an electrical activity, the lines move, the signal is there and yet no pulsation, no pulse, no drop of blood circulates, the brain is deprived of oxygen “ describes the doctor. The body begins to die in silence when the heart seems to work. “”It is an icing and yet real medical paradox. It is called electro-mechanical dissociation. Behind this expression hides a tragic, terrifying and too often fatal phenomenon.“In this situation, the heart and the body are dissociated, like two musicians playing two different scores. The current passes but the mechanics no longer follows,” continues the specialist in on his YouTube Docfx channel.
Since there are no symptoms that are announcing intense chest pain, marked shortness of breath or abundant sweats, the only way to recognize invisible cardiac arrest is to see a person who suddenly collapses, in a few seconds, who does not respond and who does not breathe normally (or more at all). Whether “invisible” or not, cardiac arrest is the greatest vital emergency that exists: you must quickly call 15 (SAMU) or 112 (European emergency number), give them key information (the exact position, what happened (“the person collapsed and no longer breathes”), put the phone in a speaker so that the Samu regulator can guide you.
If a person makes “invisible” cardiac arrest and is not immediately resuscitated (by a cardiac massage and a defibrillator), the result is sudden death. If, on the contrary, it is taken care of in time and its heart is relaunched, there is cardiac arrest, but not sudden. Since an invisible cardiac arrest does not prevent, the only way to protect yourself is to act upstream, by managing risk factors (tobacco, hypertension, obesity, diabetes …) and to make regular health assessments, especially for people who have family history of heart disease.
