13 February, 2016

Heart association developing treatment methods for Indians

"We have been using the western guidelines but now we have evidence to show that we can't do that any more," said Dr Shanthanu Guha, chairperson, scientific committee, Cardiology Society of India (CSI) on Thursday at the three-day convention organised by the society.

Indian doctors have been uncertain about the optimum goals for patients with blood pressure or how far and aggressively it should be reduced. "We obviously know it should be low, but the question remains as to how low it should be to prevent risks like heart attacks," he said.

Cardiovascular diseases are the largest cause of death in developed countries and is among the leading cause in most developing nations. In India, doctors have found that patients are younger by at least a decade and have higher levels of triglycerides and low levels of good cholesterol (HDL). The guidelines in the west do not talk much about these as risk factors do not exist in the population there, said doctors.

On Tuesday , doctors from CSI met their counterparts in European Cardiology Society to draw up guidelines for management of heart attacks, blood pressure, cholesterol and fat (lipids). "Instead of starting it fresh, we have decided to take their guidelines by incorporating our data. When we do this we will be able to write it out much faster," said Dr Guha.

Nevertheless, senior cardiologists like Dr Sarat Chandra, former editor of Indian Heart Journal, who have put together a consensus statement on management of dyslipidaemia in Indians, said they faced a series of challenges including lack of large scale epidemiological studies and outcome studies that define normal values of risk factors and their relationship to the disease.

For this reason, it may take doctors a longer time to develop guidelines but Indian cardiologists are hopeful they will have one by 2018. In the past three years, guidelines on stents and prosthetic valves developed by the Indian society have been periodically reviewed, they said.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

13.02.2016

Without forgiveness, there is no future

Archbishop Desmond Tutu