A study, recently published in the American Heart Journal, revealed that in India, cardiac deaths accounted for 23 per cent of mortality in patients with heart failure within a span of only one year. As compared to this, the doctors found that non-cardiac deaths among the Indian patients lead to only 16 per cent deaths.
In the International Congestive Heart Failure (ICHF) study, mortality was measured in patients with heart failure in one year from Africa, China, India, the Middle East, South America and other countries in South East Asia. Around 5,823 patients with heart ailments were included from 108 centers in six geographical regions. While the overall mortality was the highest in Africa at 34 per cent, India ranked second at 23 per cent while China had the lowest per cent of deaths caused by heart failure at a mere seven per cent.
While studies have showed that heart failure is a major global health problem that affects 26 million people worldwide, cardiologists blame lack of awareness among both, patients and general practitioners for the high mortality rate. Speaking to THE WEEK, Sandeep Mishra, professor of cardiology at AIIMS, New Delhi, said, “Most general practitioners don’t know how to manage heart diseases, so the patients' condition becomes more serious over a period of time. This is the main reason why so many Indian heart patients are succumbing to the disease which can actually be managed and monitored with the help of adequate treatment.”
“The second reason is obviously genetic. Hear failure affects Indians 10 years earlier as compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Physicians in India are unable to recognise the symptoms of heart failure and the patient is referred to the cardiologist at a very late stage. To make matters worse, primary healthcare centres and district hospitals lack adequate infrastructure to treat heart patients,” Mishra said. For the ICHF study, heart failure patients from the out patient department and those who were admitted in AIIMS were included to get further data from India.
He also lamented over the fact that most patients don’t know the difference between a heart attack and heart failure. “The term heart disease is a very broad one and includes the coronary arteries and also heart valves. In the case of a heart attack or cardiac arrest, the patient has only a few seconds or minutes. On the other hand, heart failure affects the patients over a span of months or even years. Hence, these patients have a longer window of opportunity for adequate treatment,” he further adds.
The symptoms of heart failure include shortness of breath, persistent coughing or wheezing, fatigue, giddiness, high heart rate, nausea and fluid accumulation.
