Imagine that there are about 250 trillion blood vessels in your body, which extend in all directions like a highway network.
There are 3 key blood vessels that are responsible for the important task of transporting oxygen and nutrients, and once they are blocked or narrowed, it is like a serious car accident on the highway, and if not treated immediately, it will directly affect your health and even your life.
▍Which three blood vessels are easy to block? [1,2]
The following large blood vessels often have problems:
50% stroke: carotid artery stenosis or blockage
The first is the carotid artery, which is responsible for supplying blood to your brain. You can feel the beating on both sides of your neck, the carotid arteries, where the blood vessels can easily get sick due to the impact of the blood flow and swirls.
The carotid artery is a blood passage that flows to the brain, and the carotid artery is narrowed due to the smaller diameter of the inner tube of the blood vessel caused by various reasons. The main cause of stenosis is carotid arteriosclerosis, which is the condition in more than 90% of people (other causes are chronic inflammatory arteritis, carotid artery tortuosity, etc.).
When the carotid arteries are narrowed or blocked, the brain can suffer a stroke ("stroke") due to ischemia. According to statistics, nearly 50% of strokes are caused by carotid artery problems.
Early warning symptoms
Symptomatic carotid artery stenosis
If you've had one or more transient ischemic attacks (commonly known as mini-strokes) in the past 6 months, you can't speak clearly, you can't understand what others are saying, or your vision suddenly blurs and dims, this could be a warning sign.
Asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis
It is important to note that if your carotid artery ultrasound reveals carotid artery stenosis, but you recall that you have no symptoms, you should consider whether it is this type of stenosis. As long as you feel dizzy or have a slight headache in the past 6 months, you have asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis.
Cardiac power source "outage": anterior descending artery blockage[3]
The heart has three main coronary arteries, the anterior descending artery, the circumflex artery, and the right coronary artery. Of these, the anterior descending artery is particularly critical and is responsible for supplying blood to the anterior wall of the left ventricle, part of the anterior wall of the right ventricle, and the anterior two-thirds of the interventricular septum.
The anterior descending artery has a complex route, with many curves and branches, where blood flow tends to be turbulent, which can damage the inner wall of the arteries and form atherosclerotic plaques.
Anterior descending artery blockage occurs when atherosclerotic plaques block blood vessels, narrowing them, or these plaques suddenly rupture, causing the blood vessels to become completely blocked.
As a result, a large area of the heart is deprived of oxygen due to insufficient blood, causing severe chest pain, known as angina, or more severe anterior myocardial infarction, and sometimes sudden death.
Early warning symptoms
1. Chest pain, chest swelling
Chest pain and suffocation
2. Heart failure
Symptoms such as blue lips, skin, or nails, irritability, difficulty breathing, etc
3. Hypotension and shock
Paleness, irritability, profuse sweating, decreased urine output, clammy skin, etc
4. Arrhythmias
Heart palpitations, sweating, fatigue, breathlessness, etc
Risk of "sudden death": thrombus running to the pulmonary artery [4-6]
Many hospitals have encountered this situation: the patient has been successfully operated, but suddenly has difficulty breathing after surgery, or even dies. In the past, it was often thought to be a cardiovascular and cerebrovascular problem, but now there are more and more cases of severe pulmonary embolism (pulmonary embolism) caused by a blood clot in the deep veins of the legs.
According to statistics, pulmonary embolism is an important cause of death in hospitalized patients, second only to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents.
Pulmonary embolism is easy to overlook, which is why it is called the "silent killer". The cause of death is that the venous thrombosis of the lower extremities runs to the pulmonary artery, causing embolism.
How can a blood clot in the leg get to the lungs? The pulmonary artery is a blood vessel that connects our heart to our lungs. When we breathe, blood flows through the pulmonary arteries to the lungs, where the oxygen-rich blood returns to the heart after a gas exchange.
If the pulmonary arteries are blocked, the pressure in the heart suddenly increases and the oxygen levels in the blood drop dramatically. As a result, there will be major problems with heart and respiratory function, increasing the risk of sudden death.
Most of the blood clots that block the pulmonary arteries come from the veins of the lower limbs. Blood clots travel through the veins to the heart and then into the pulmonary arteries, causing pulmonary embolism.
Why are the veins of the lower limbs prone to blood clots? Because the blood flow in the lower limbs is not smooth, the blood flow is slow, and sometimes even stagnant, which can easily lead to thrombosis.
Self-test lower extremity arterial thrombosis:
If you want to check for blood clots in the arteries of your lower extremities yourself at home, there are two simple tests that can be done:
1. Measure your leg circumference
Spread your legs slightly apart, shoulder-width apart, and use a tape measure to measure 10 cm below your kneecap. If you notice a difference of more than 3 cm in the circumference of the legs, this may be a sign of deep vein thrombosis.
2. Press the calf with a pit
Continue to press the tibial area on the front of your calf with your fingers for about 5 to 10 seconds, then let go. If the depression does not return to normal within 2 seconds, it may indicate that the blood flow in the leg is not smooth, and there is a risk of deep vein thrombosis.
As a reminder, if you suspect that you have a blood clot, it is best to go to the hospital for color ultrasound or deep venous imaging of the lower limbs, which can more accurately know the specific location and severity of the blood clot.
▍Who is prone to blood vessel problems? [3]
Studies have found that the following groups of people need to pay special attention to the maintenance of blood vessels:
1. Get used to sitting or standing for long periods of time
2. Eat foods high in oil, salt, and sugar
3. Stay on top of cigarettes and alcohol
4. Be over 40 years old
5. Obese or pregnant
6. Disease population
Arteriosclerosis, postoperative patients, patients with abnormal blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose, varicose veins of the lower limbs, family history of thrombosis.
People with these habits or conditions should pay more attention to protecting their blood vessels, have regular check-ups, and pay attention to their lifestyle, so as to stay away from the danger of "blockage" of blood vessels.
1. Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of carotid artery stenosis, 2017-07-302. Update and interpretation of guidelines for extracranial carotid artery surgery [J]. Fudan Journal (Medical Science), 2022, 49 (05): 633-641.3. , Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 2017-06-294. Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pulmonary thromboembolism, Chinese Journal of Vascular Surgery, 2017, 9(3):169-175.5. Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of arteriosclerosis occlusive disease of the lower extremities[J]. Chinese Journal of General Surgery:Electronic Edition, 2016(1):18.6.Where does the blood clot in the lung come from? (The Way of Health, Deep Vein Thrombosis (2))2017-05-19 People's Daily 7.These 5 blood vessels are the most easily blocked, which can cause disease at least and be fatal at worst! Shanghai Putuo 2022-03-02
Tips: Popular science articles do not provide professional diagnosis and treatment opinions, specific diagnosis and treatment should be carried out under the guidance of professional doctors, the picture comes from the photo network
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