Nursing Skills and Patient Care Procedures Practice Test

The main idea is a disease process where the arteries that supply the heart become narrowed, reducing blood flow to the heart muscle. This condition is coronary artery disease, or CAD. The narrowing is usually due to atherosclerosis—plaque buildup inside the coronary arteries—so less oxygen-rich blood reaches the heart, especially during activity. This reduced blood flow can lead to chest discomfort known as angina and, if severe, a heart attack.

Angina describes the chest pain itself, which is a symptom of CAD, not the disease name. Visual impairment and pneumonia are not related to the heart’s blood supply, so they don’t describe this condition. Thus, the term that best fits “a heart condition caused by narrowed arteries reducing blood flow to the heart” is coronary artery disease.