What is the difference between a heart stroke and cardiac arrest?

Cardiac Arrest

When a person stops breathing and has no heartbeat, the condition is called cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest may have a variety of causes 鈥?heart attack, drowning, stroke, electrocution, suffocation, drug overdose, motor vehicle or other injury.

Stroke

1. A sudden severe attack, as of paralysis or sunstroke.
2. A sudden loss of brain function caused by a blockage or rupture of a blood vessel to the brain, resulting in necrosis of brain tissue and characterized by loss of muscular control, diminution or loss of sensation or consciousness, dizziness, slurred speech, or other symptoms that vary with the extent and severity of brain damage. Also called cerebral accident, cerebral infarction, cerebrovascular accident.

A stroke is usually away from the heart in the neck or head

Cardiac arrest is when your heart stops. Angina is pain from lack of blood to the heart muscle. I've never heard of heart stroke. Perhaps you mean myocardial infarction?

In the lay population there is no real difference. Cardiac Arrest refers to a time where in the heart stops beating. A stroke refers to a time when a particular organ stops recieving blood. The use of the word stroke is more common when referring to the brain.

Heart Stroke, Myocardial Infarction, Heart Attack are all interchangable, for the most part within the medical community you will see the second, and the last is more of a lay reference.