Heart diseases on the rise in India: Expert

Vijayawada: A recent study conducted in India showed that only 20 per cent of people suffering from diabetes are prone to heart diseases, said Dr P Ramesh Babu, cardiologist and managing director, Ramesh Hospitals.

In the past two decades, he said heart diseases are increased by 34 per cent in India. Speaking to The Hans India, he said that cancer was catching up in the USA and other developed countries and there was decrease of heart diseases by 31.8 per cent in the USA. Whereas in India, he said the heart attack and cardiac problem related cases were on the rise.

Ramesh said Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study conducted in 21 countries shows that cardio-vascular diseases has increased by three to four times in India in recent years.

He said most people and medical fraternity believe that heat attack occurs suddenly whereas the disease harbours in the body for 15 to 20 years before it presents as a heart attack.

So far, people believe in risk factors like diabetes, BP, smoking, alcohol and others are responsible for heart attack and people, who do not have these habits, will not develop heart diseases, which is a misconception as 50 per cent of heart attack disease patients admitted in ICU do not have these major risk factors, said Dr Ramesh.

He said the other misleading factor is relying on stress tests, such as treadmill and stress Thallium because of false tests results, the stress tests are no longer considered as first line of investigations to detect heart diseases.

According the NICE guidelines, American Heart Association and European Craniological Society guidelines, the Coronary Artery Calcium and CT Coronary Angiogram should be considered as first line of investigations to identify hidden coronary artery disease.

It is also believed that by using risk scores such as Framingham and Reynolds, people are prescribed unnecessary cholesterol lowering drugs like statins, it is believed that if coronary artery calcium (CAC) is tested, 50 per cent, people can stop using statins. Using of high dosage of statins for long period will have side effects leading to diabetes, weakness, muscle pain and others, he pointed out.

As part of the World Heart Day, Ramesh Hospitals would conduct a medical camp at Bhavanipuram, basic life support training to 5,000 to police and students for one-year starting from September 29 in Guntur. A walkathon will be organised in Ongole and Guntur to create awareness on heart diseases, said Dr Ramesh Babu.