Father had heart attack (2008.08.19)

On friday my father suffered a minor heart attack.

The Patient:
Male in his late fifties with high blood pressure. He has known cholesterol problems for which he is on Lipitor (Atorvastatin); prescribed in order to keep his LDL (low density lipids) in check. His father passed away due to a heart attack in his sleep in his 60's ( I believe). Patient is in relatively good shape, but has added on a couple extra pounds in the last couple of years (6'10', 210lbs). Works in computer sales in a small company that has been trying to squeeze him out for the last couple of years, adding greatly to his stress levels. Has 2 children at home (15 and 5) and a caring and devoted wife who manages most of the household issues. In reflection he remembers having perspiration periods over the past year for no apparent reason. Sometimes these sweats would come on while laying down or when reading at the dinner table. Patient now is attributing these incidents to pre-heart attack blockages.

Treatment :
From what I can tell it was a relatively minor heart attack, but today I should know more, because he goes in for a cath today to probe the position and extent of the problem. If its minor it will probably be taken care of by a minor splint, kind of a mini metal tube used to keep the vessel open around the area of the attack or even just a angioplasty; a balloon used to just push the plaque around on the vessel wall. If the attack had more damage, which I doubt, there is the possibility of a bypass. My only concern is it took a couple doses of nitroglycerin to open him up when he came in. I wasn't able to get info on the dosage, so I'm not sure if there was just an underestimation by the staff or if the blockage was severe enough to require that much for dilation. I should know at the end of the day how my father is fairing and what the trauma looked like.

Implications for Offspring:
Since my father and my grandfather have both had heart attacks, one has passed on due to them and the other most likely will to. I make the assumption that their is some genetic factor in play here. Both had high cholesterol levels, which I don't appear to have, but I do not know if their LDL levels changed abruptly at some point in their life. I'm going to continue my yearly tracking of LDL and other factors to see if mine change. In general this probably means without major changes in medicine my life expectancy is around 60 to 65 and would assume this for my other male siblings.