Blood leaks back into the chambers rather than flowing forward through the heart or into an artery. In the United States, backflow most often is due to prolapse. Prolapse is when the flaps of the valve flop or bulge back into an upper heart chamber during a heartbeat. Prolapse mainly affects the mitral valve.
NSTEMI is a shorthand medical term for non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. It is one type of myocardial infarction also called heart attack.
Both types of heart attack are considered acute coronary syndromes, a term that describes any blockage of blood supply to the heart muscle. As a result, NSTEMI and STEMI can lead to damage of the heart tissue.