Sep 30 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Heart disease is hitting Indians early: US study
Malathy Iyer
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Mumbai:
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In the Indian pool of heart patients, almost every second patient has high blood pressure, every fourth has diabetes and every fifth has plaque deposits in his her arteries. And Indians are getting heart problems almost a decade ahead of patients in western countries.This scientific picture of Indian heart diseases comes from the American College of Cardiology's newly setup study centres across India.
ACC is a not-for-profit medical association that works out guidelines for cardiac treatment which are in variably followed globally.
The ongoing study provided data of 85,295 patients who clocked 2.11 lakh visits to out-patient departments of 15 hospitals from Mumbai to Patna over the last 26 months. Of these patients, 60,836 were found to have heart disease. In capturing all-India data, this is one of the most scientific studies,“ said Dr Prafulla Kerkar, the head of Parel's KEM Hospital's cardiology department. He is also the chairperson of ACC's Pinnacle registry's India Quality Improvement Programme.
In the backdrop of World Heart Day on Monday , the ACC data underlines that the average age of a heart patient in India is 52 years. “If one looks at ACC's American registry, the average age is much higher in the sixties,“ said Dr Ganesh Kumar, cardiologist at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai and vice-chairperson of the study.
The ACC study for the first time shows how badly diabetes affects the Indian heart. It provides the breakup of the 13,077 patients with diabetes who visited the 15 centres a total of 35,441 times.
“Here, we found a doubling of the diseases. For instance, 32% of the diabetic patients had narrowed arteries or coronary artery disease. Almost 10% of them had heart failure and 70% had hypertension. The corresponding numbers for non-diabetic patients are half,“ said Dr Kumar. He said the actual number of diabetic patients with heart complications would run into millions.
ACC is a not-for-profit medical association that works out guidelines for cardiac treatment which are in variably followed globally.
The ongoing study provided data of 85,295 patients who clocked 2.11 lakh visits to out-patient departments of 15 hospitals from Mumbai to Patna over the last 26 months. Of these patients, 60,836 were found to have heart disease. In capturing all-India data, this is one of the most scientific studies,“ said Dr Prafulla Kerkar, the head of Parel's KEM Hospital's cardiology department. He is also the chairperson of ACC's Pinnacle registry's India Quality Improvement Programme.
In the backdrop of World Heart Day on Monday , the ACC data underlines that the average age of a heart patient in India is 52 years. “If one looks at ACC's American registry, the average age is much higher in the sixties,“ said Dr Ganesh Kumar, cardiologist at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai and vice-chairperson of the study.
The ACC study for the first time shows how badly diabetes affects the Indian heart. It provides the breakup of the 13,077 patients with diabetes who visited the 15 centres a total of 35,441 times.
“Here, we found a doubling of the diseases. For instance, 32% of the diabetic patients had narrowed arteries or coronary artery disease. Almost 10% of them had heart failure and 70% had hypertension. The corresponding numbers for non-diabetic patients are half,“ said Dr Kumar. He said the actual number of diabetic patients with heart complications would run into millions.
