Registry for acute heart attack cases planned

The Tamil Nadu Interventional Council has proposed to launch a registry for acute heart attacks. The registry is necessary as only one or two per cent of those who suffer heart attacks get interventional support, say cardiologists.

“It is imperative that patients are brought within an hour of a heart attack or at least as early as possible. Often patients come very late, sometimes as late as 12 hours after a heart attack by which time the heart muscles have been permanently damaged,” explained G. Sengottuvelu, Council secretary and senior interventional cardiologist.

According to its president G. Elangovan, if doctors in primary and secondary healthcare centres are trained to identify the patients and transmit their ECG readings to specialists it would help prevent untimely deaths. “Prevention is better than cure as most often it is lifestyle conditions such as obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, tobacco use and lack of exercise that cause heart attacks. There is also a small per cent of people with congenital heart diseases,” he said.

The cardiologists say increasingly older persons who had already had one bypass are now returning for repair of grafts. “These patients require a procedure to correct the problem arising from ageing grafts. Science has advanced and we can now ensure that their grafts do not give way,” Dr. Sengottuvelu explained. A specialist from Canada will discuss the success of the procedure, he added.

The Council has organised a two-day seminar this weekend in the city, which will be attended by specialists from Japan, Canada, France and Singapore, said Dr. G. Elangovan.

‘Elders who had underwent bypass are returning for grafts’ repair'

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