26 per cent of deaths due to heart attack

Hyderabad: Interventional cardiology wherein catheter-based treatment is used for heart diseases is gaining popularity, cardiologists at a conference held in the Yashoda Hospitals here Saturday said. With heart attacks accounting for 26 per cent of deaths in India in 2013, better forms of treatment with new technology are in dire need, the meeting heard.

Health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy inaugurated the conference and explained that the ?Hub and Spoke Model? for emergency heart care treatment has been introduced here. ?In this model, Yashoda is the hub and smaller hospitals in urban and rural areas are the spokes. This system works well in providing immediate therapy like clot busters. This would help patient tremendously as lives can be saved.?

Cardiologists at the conference said there was a strong need to evaluate the high-risk patients as many of them represented an ?asymptomatic format?. Dr K Pramod Kumar, chairman of the scientific committee, explained: ?The risk factors for coronary heart diseases require to be evaluated minutely. We are finding a lot of patients with no symptoms at all; and that calls for extensive investigations. Also, cardiologists are required to go by evidence-based management of the disease which is the latest guideline, making sure that all aspects are properly investigated, he said.