Medicogramalmost 6 years ago

Myocardial infarction

This heart was removed from an organ donor who suffered from a myocardial infarction called death of the heart's musculature. The heart requires its own constant supply of oxygen and nutrients, like any muscle in the body. The heart has three coronary arteries, two of them are large, branching arteries that deliver oxygenated blood to the heart musculature. If one of these arteries or branches becomes blocked suddenly, a portion of the heart is starved of oxygen, a condition called "cardiac ischemia." If cardiac ischemia lasts too long, the starved heart tissue dies, the so called a heart attack, pathologically known as a myocardial infarction.