E-Paper
Data shows 8% of 100 heart patients in Himachal are younger than 40 years
About 36 hospitals in the state participated in collecting data on heart patients admitted in these hospitals to make the state heart attack registry
At least eight out of 100 persons in the state who suffer from a heart attack are younger than 40 years and smoking is a major risk factor. This was revealed in data gathered in Himachal Pradesh Heart Attack Registry.
About 36 hospitals in the state both in government and private sectors participated in collecting data on heart patients admitted in these hospitals to make the registry.
The data also revealed that heart attack is about two-fold more common in men than women and on average annually 70 per one lakh population were getting a heart attack in the state and Hamirpur had the highest incidence of heart attacks. A heart attack is equally common in rural and urban populations.
There was an average delay of about 13 hours from symptom onset to reporting in the hospitals. Only about 30% received life-saving medicine (thrombolytic drug), while rest of the 70% could not receive this medicine due to late reporting. About 8% of patients died during the index heart attack. The major reasons for late reporting were ignorance about symptoms of heart attack and long travelling time. In some of the cases even if patients reached the hospital in time the drug was not given as the attending medical officer on duty was not confident of the diagnosis.
Head of cardiology PC Negi said that the data has been uploaded in a web-based data recording system designed by the IT cell of IGMC Shimla. The department of cardiology was the project coordinating centre where data received from these hospitals was analysed to provide information related to age and gender distribution of heart attack patients, district wise and rural-urban distribution of patients, those consuming tobacco, time delay from symptom onset to reporting hospital, treatment received during hospitalisation and death rates during index heart attack event.
Taking this valuable information gathered in the registry the study has been designed to address the barriers in the implementation of lifesaving drugs in heart patients. The project was submitted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for funding and has been approved, he added.
He said that the STEMI care project has been started in the Shimla district from April and is being funded by ICMR New Delhi. This project is essentially designed to address the shortcoming seen at the patient level and at the system level in delivering care to patients as observed in the state heart attack registry.
The project aims to overcome these barriers through community education about the symptoms of heart attack and the importance of seeking medical attention immediately without wasting precious time.
