NURS6501 Week 3 | Pathology in Health Care - Walden university

Question 2Myocardial Infarction

CC: “I woke up this morning at 6 a.m. with numbness in my left arm and pain in my chest. It feels tight right here (mid-sternal).” “My dad had a heart attack when he was 56-years-old and I am scared because I am 56-years-old.” HPI: Patient is a 56-year-old Caucasian male who presents to Express Hospital Emergency Department with a chief complaint of chest pain that radiates down his left arm. He states this started this morning and has been getting worse, pointing to the mid-sternal area, “it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest and having a hard time breathing”. He rates the pain as 9/10. Nothing has made the pain better or worse. He denies any previous episode of chest pain. Denies nausea, or lightheadedness. Nitroglycerin 0.4 mg tablet sublingual x 1 which decreased pain to 7/10. Lipid panel reveals Total Cholesterol 424 mg/dl, high density lipoprotein (HDL) 26 mg/dl, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) 166 mg/dl, Triglycerides 702 mg/dl, Very Low-Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) 64 mg/dl His diagnosis is an acute inferior wall myocardial infarction. Question: How does inflammation contribute to the development of atherosclerosis?