KOCHI: In the wake of increasing cases of heart failures, Cardiological Society of India (CSI) Heart Failure Council conducted a snap survey on patients with heart failure, admitted to various hospitals across India in the second week of July.
The study was conducted in 25 states among 1,300 patients.
“The survey presents a grim picture. The mortality risk is higher in heart failure than in cancer. The condition, understood globally to be the leading cause of hospitalisation among people aged 60 and above, is found to have affected much younger population here. In many cases, acute heart attack after treatment ended up in heart failure, thereby becoming a double burden,” said Dr Ambuj Roy, convener, CSI Heart Failure Council.
“An early diagnosis happens only in 50 per cent of the patients,” said Dr S Ramakrishnan, senior cardiologist, AIIMS, Delhi.
This was revealed in a National Meet of CSI Heart Failure Conference held in Kochi. Dr Jabir A, organising secretary, said heart failure is the greatest health care challenge of our times with disease mortality rate of 30 per cent in a year and survival rate of only 50 per cent in a span of three years. “There is a lack of general awareness as to what heart failure is and how it is different from a heart attack,"’ he said.