Prevention can help avoid heart surgery

CHENNAI: Preventive cardiology programmes and better patient education could help avoid expensive heart surgeries such as coronary bypass or angioplasty, the founder of the Mumbai–based Institute of Preventive Cardiology (IPC) and preventive cardiologist, Pratiksha Namjoshi, said on Friday.

Addressing a group of patients on prevention of heart attacks and reversal of heart problems, Dr. Pratiksha said a combination of early detection, patient education and non–invasive treatment modalities had helped around 1,500 patients at IPC avoid angioplasty.

18 crore prone
Pointing to the magnitude of cardiac disease in the community, she said there were an estimated 18 crore people prone to heart disease. By 2015, 60 per cent of the cardiac deaths in the world was projected to occur in India. According to her, 91 persons die of cardiac problems in the country every hour. And in around 25 per cent of patients, heart attack manifests as the first symptom of heart disease.

The benefits of preventive cardiology interventions and adopting a holistic approach to treatment of cardiac problems could be immense in India, which had a high proportion of patients with heart problems and low affordability for expensive treatment options. In countries such as the U.S., Japan and Finland, preventive cardiology programmes had helped reduce the disease burden by almost 50 per cent.

According to Dr. Pratiksha, it was important to understand that a normal ECG value could mask the presence of arterial blockages. The accuracy of other diagnostic methods such as stress test, stress thallium test or cardiovascular cartography also varied, she said.

Due to a combination of both diagnostic limitations as well as the obsessive pursuit of curative medicine, many angioplasties recommended for patients these days are unwarranted, she claimed.

New alternatives
Among the emerging alternatives to treatments such as angioplasty and bypass were artery clearance therapy (ACT) and enhanced external counter pulsation treatment, which created a natural bypass around blocked arteries, Dr. Pratiksha said.

ACT, for which the IPC shares technical collaboration with Arterial Disease Clinic, U.K., is a non–operative treatment to prevent and reverse heart diseases and other blood vessel and pollution– related diseases. It consists of anti–oxidants, chelation therapy and lifestyle management.

The holistic approach to treatment included yoga, meditation, stress management, diet and cardio–fitness programmes to reversing blockages in arteries.

The aim of non–invasive treatment, recommended for patients with angina, those who have had a heart attack or have been advised angiography, was to reduce the blockages in main arteries to make them insignificant and improve the collateral blood flow through smaller arteries. The programmes improve elasticity to restore flow in all blood vessels of the body and prevent deposition of new blockages through essential lifestyle changes of diet, yoga, stress management and exercise.