Angina Causes & Risk Factors - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Cardiovascular System

Angina

Causes & Risk Factors

Causes

Damage to the inner layers of the coronary arteries due to smoking, high levels of fat and cholesterol in the blood, hypertension and high sugar levels in the blood can cause Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). It is known now that angina is a symptom of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) leading to reduced oxygenated blood flow to the myocardial muscle. The human body has a built in mechanism of healing the damaged portion with the help of excess fatty tissues that releases compounds that promote the healing process. Thus, it is clear that healing leads to building up of plaque at points of arterial damage causing the arteries to narrow. Plaque may narrow the arteries or even block the arteries hindering the blood flow to myocardial muscle.

Causes for Stable Angina:
1. Physical exertion
2. Emotional stress
3. Exposure to extreme hot or cold temperatures
4. Heavy meals
5. Smoking

Causes for Unstable Angina:
Plaque (built up) in an artery ruptures or breaks open leading to blood clots that block an artery partially or totally, causing unstable angina.

Causes of Variant Angina:
Spasms lead to variant angina and the causes of those spasms are:

1. Exposure to cold
2. Emotional stress
3. Smoking
4. Use of Cocaine
5. Medications that narrow blood vessels (1)

Causes of Microvascular Angina:
Abnormal constriction or deficient endothelial-dependent relaxation of arteries (Syndrome X) causes Miscrovascular angina.

Other general causes of angina are:
1. Congenital/structural anomalies of coronary arteries.
2. Reduced oxygen carrying capacity of blood such as severe anemia or increased carboxyhemoglobin.
3. Compression or squeezing of coronary arteries.
4. Inflammation or infection of coronary arteries.
5. Severe Aortic stenosis (heart valve disease) leading to narrowing of outflow of blood from heart.
6. Hypertrophy or thickening of heart muscle leading to hypertension. (4,5,7)

Risks
The following risk factors contribute to Angina:
1. Coronary calcification
2. Usage of tobacco
3. Elevated C-Reactive Protein
4. Elevated Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) or cholesterol.
5. Diabetes Mellitus
6. Inherited ischemic disease
7. Obesity
8. Sedentary life style or little physical activity. (9)

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com

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Page Last Modified:
01/04/2011