Recognising it and the spectrum
The presentations, and every kind of heart attack with its neighbours.
Recognising it: chest pain, and the presentations that are not chest pain
The classic picture and the six others: breathlessness alone, the "indigestion", the jaw and arm, the collapse, the palpitations, the woman's heart attack. Aspirin, 999, and what not to do. 7 min.
The spectrum: every kind of heart attack, and the things next to it
Stable and unstable angina, NSTEMI, STEMI, type 2 infarction, MINOCA, coronary spasm, SCAD, takotsubo, myocarditis and pericarditis, the rhythm problems and heart block, cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest — what each is, how it is told apart, and what that changes. 10 min.
The clock and the hospital
What should happen, how fast, and with which drugs.
The clock and the hospital: what should happen and how fast
ECG in ten minutes, troponin on a timed pathway, the 120-minute rule for opening the artery, the 72-hour rule for the others, every drug with its reason, cardiogenic shock, and where UK and US practice differ. 10 min.
The rhythm problems and heart block
Atrial fibrillation and the anticoagulation decision, rate against rhythm, ablation, SVT and the manoeuvre that stops it, VT and VF and who gets a defibrillator, the three degrees of heart block and the pacemaker, and the inherited conditions. 12 min.
The unusual ones: takotsubo, SCAD, MINOCA, myocarditis and pericarditis
The five that arrive as a heart attack and part company with it: what each is, the test that decides it, why the standard drugs are partly wrong, and the follow-up each needs. 10 min.
After hospital
Recovery, every test, driving and work, preventing the next one.
After hospital: the drugs, the rehab, driving, work and the years after
Every drug with its duration and the cholesterol target, cardiac rehabilitation and why half never go, the DVLA and flying rules, sex and work, what gets rechecked when, and daily life. 9 min.
Every test, and when it is worth doing
The first-day bloods and scans, the months-after tests, and the extended blood, genetic and imaging tests for early, unexplained and unusual heart attacks — familial cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), the inherited rhythm conditions, SCAD, takotsubo, heart block — with what each result changes. 10 min.
For doctors
The guidelines on one page.
For doctors: the guidelines on one page
NG185, NG196 and NG238 against the AHA/ACC 2025 ACS guideline and the 2023–24 AF guidelines, by question; the unusual ones in a table; doses; the DVLA table. 8 min.
Printable
Take it to the ward or the clinic.
Printable heart attack checklist
The first minutes, the hospital, the discharge and the months after, with an atrial fibrillation card. 3 min.