Noted Mumbai-based cardiologist Dev K Pahlajani who performed the first angioplasty in the country has said due to lack of public awareness about recognising the symptoms of heart attack and the medical field not ready to receive the heart attack patients and perform angioplasty, the mortality rate due to heart attacks is increasing.
“I call these as missed opportunities where with better awareness and preparedness, the mortality rate due to acute heart attacks can be brought down,” Dr.Pahlajani told The Hindu on the sidelines of 21 annual conference of Cardiological Society of India Telangana State Chapter here on Saturday.
In Mumbai alone, at least 30 persons succumb to heart attacks a day. According to statistics, 7,000 deaths are due to cancer while 29,000 deaths are because of heart attacks in a year. Yet only few hundred patients were picked up for angioplasty after they suffered heart attack to open a blocked or narrowed blood vessels as the first line treatment to save lives.
Earlier delivering key note address, Dr. Dev Pahlajani said there were many sub sects of heart patients. Only in 10 to 15 per cent of cases, medicines would be prescribed for the treatment. But in 85 per cent of cases with acute heart attacks, if nothing was done, patients would possibly die. More and more hospitals should be ready to perform angioplasty, he said.
Dr. Pahlajani said that creating awareness about symptoms of heart attack was crucial to bringing down mortality rate. People either fail to read the symptoms or ignore them. “It is important to consult the doctor for any kind of uneasiness, gas, sweating, pain in the shoulder, back, chest, jaw, neck, immediately,” he emphasises. There are certain patients who benefit from bypass surgery. But for acute heart attacks due to myocardial infraction with unstable angina, angioplasty would benefit them. Those with stable blocks and non diabetic, also benefit from angioplasty. Surgery would be ideal for those with blocks in the left main artery and those with multiple blocks and diabetic, he said.
Dr. J .Shiv Kumar, President, CSITS and Chief of Cardiology, Apollo Hospitals, said the two –day conference was a platform to keep in sync with the breakthrough in technologies and trials in line with their theme ‘Attack heart attacks’ by inviting experts in the field.
