Final answer:
Angina is chest pain caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle, leading to oxygen deprivation. Treatment focuses on symptom relief and slowing atherosclerosis progression. Angina must be differentiated from a myocardial infarction, which is a complete blockage leading to heart muscle damage.
Step-by-step explanation:
The medical term meaning mild to severe suffocating pain that typically occurs in the chest and is caused by an inadequate blood flow to the myocardium, also called angina pectoris, is angina. Angina is often experienced as chest pain or pressure when heart muscle cells become starved of oxygen, a condition known as ischemia. Symptoms can also include pain in the back, neck, shoulders, or jaw; shortness of breath; sweating; or nausea.
Treatment aims to relieve symptoms and slow the progression of atherosclerosis, which is the build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries and a common underlying cause of angina.
It's important to distinguish angina from a myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack. While angina results from partial blockage of the coronary arteries leading to reduced blood flow, a heart attack occurs when blood flow stops entirely to a part of the heart, causing damage to heart muscle and death of myocardial cells.