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One thing I didn't really talk about is that patients experiencing acute coronary syndrome suffer from an imbalance between supply of oxygenated blood to the heart, and myocardial demand. Our therapies are directed at reducing demand or increasing supply. O2 supplementation can increase supply in the hypoxemic patient, but the difference between a patient satting in the mid 90's is not that different than one at 100%. The major factor here is a reduction in supply due to occlusion of a coronary artery.
The heart is not getting enough oxygen, but it is due to lack of blood flow vs. blood oxygenation. The best way to get more oxygen to the tissue is to open up that artery or bust the clot. This is why O2 therapy is supplementary in acute MI while medical and surgical interventions to provide more blood flow to the heart are the primary therapies.
SR
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