Coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is when the coronary arteries, which carry blood to your heart muscle, become narrowed by fatty deposits. This means your heart may not get enough blood and oxygen, especially when it has to work harder. It is one of the most common causes of death in the UK, but it can be treated and managed.

Symptoms

Some people have no symptoms until they have a heart attack. Others have:

• angina: a tight, heavy or dull pain in the chest, often brought on by activity, cold weather or stress, which eases with rest
• breathlessness
• tiredness when doing things you used to manage

Causes and risk factors

The main things that raise your risk are:

• smoking
• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• diabetes
• being overweight or inactive
• drinking too much alcohol
• a family history of heart disease at a young age
• being older, or male
• being of South Asian heritage

Many of these can be changed, which is why healthy changes make such a difference.

Tests

Your GP may refer you to a rapid access chest pain clinic or a heart specialist. Tests can include:

• an ECG, a painless heart trace
• blood tests
• a CT scan of the heart's arteries
• an angiogram, where dye is used to show the arteries on X-ray
• tests to see how your heart works when it is under stress

Treatment

Treatment includes medicines, healthy changes and, for some people, procedures to open or bypass the narrowed arteries. See coronary heart disease treatment.