A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. Most MIs occur due to coronary artery disease.
A myocardial infarction, according to current consensus, is defined by elevated cardiac biomarkers with a rising or falling trend and at least one of the following:
• Symptoms relating to ischemia
• Changes on an electrocardiogram (ECG), such as ST segment changes, new left bundle branch block, or pathologic Q waves
• Changes in the motion of the heart wall on imaging
• Demonstration of a thrombus on angiogram or at autopsy.
A myocardial infarction is usually clinically classified as an ST-elevation MI (STEMI) or a non-ST elevation MI (NSTEMI). These are based on ST elevation, a portion of a heartbeat graphically recorded on an ECG.
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