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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Why Would Thicker Blood Cause A Heart Attack?

Why would thicker blood cause a heart attack?
Mon, 14 Dec 2009
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It generally wouldn't but if you were already atherosclerotic, thicker blood would clot more easily and cause a myocardial ischemia or infarct. If you have a healthy heart and blood vessels thicker blood would take a long time to have a direct effect on your heart. And then it would only increase the work load on the ventricles and cause them to hypertrophy. But I can't see a situation where your blood would be so thick for so long. By "thicker" blood I'm assuming you mean an increased red cell and hemoglobin content. Your hematocrit would have to be 55% or higher for it to be called "thick".

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Why Would Thicker Blood Cause A Heart Attack?

It generally wouldn t but if you were already atherosclerotic, thicker blood would clot more easily and cause a myocardial ischemia or infarct. If you have a healthy heart and blood vessels thicker blood would take a long time to have a direct effect on your heart. And then it would only increase the work load on the ventricles and cause them to hypertrophy. But I can t see a situation where your blood would be so thick for so long. By thicker blood I m assuming you mean an increased red cell and hemoglobin content. Your hematocrit would have to be 55% or higher for it to be called thick .