This chest tightness can change from day to day, and/or from moment to moment. All of the above combinations and variations are common. This type of chest tightness is commonly misconstrued as heart problems or the signs of a heart attack.
Cardiac arrest, also known as cardiopulmonary arrest or circulatory arrest, is a sudden stop in effective blood circulation due to the failure of the heart to contract effectively or at all. Medical personnel may refer to an unexpected cardiac arrest as a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).
A heart attack (or myocardial infarction) refers to death of heart muscle tissue due to the loss of blood supply, not necessarily resulting in the death of the heart attack victim. Cardiac arrest is caused when the heart's electrical system malfunctions. In cardiac arrest death results when the heart suddenly stops working properly. This may be caused by abnormal, or irregular, heart rhythms (called arrhythmias). A common arrhythmia in cardiac arrest is ventricular fibrillation.