Mohali
28 September 2020
DIVYA AZAD
On the occasional World Heart Day, the cardiovascular division, Fortis Hospital, Mohali, launched the region’s first-ever state of art heart failure and heart transplant service. This will help a very large number of heart failure patients to get the most advanced heart failure treatment.
This program will provide heart failure education and awareness, access to the state of art heart failure clinic, digital monitoring and surveillance of heart failure patients, advanced heart failure intensive care, heart failure device management, and heart transplant.
Dr. RK Jaswal, Director – Cath Lab, said that heart failure is a very common and potentially fatal disease and very poorly treated in our country. There are at least 8-10 million patients of heart failure in India and the majority of these patients are relatively young compared to the western population and 50-60 percent of them hardly taking any medicines. The incidence of diabetes in Heart Failure patients in India in the Trivandrum registry was 55 percent. Heart Failure patients in India have post-admission mortality of 20-30 percent. With this intent, we have dedicated a special heart failure clinic that gives services to these patients. It helps them not only to improve longevity, but also offers them a much better quality of life
Dr. Rajat Sharma, Consultant, Cardiac Electrophysiology, said, Fortis Hospital, Mohali has launched a state of art heart failure and heart transplant service, which will ensure a comprehensive heart failure management, advanced heart failure device implantation, and heart transplant.
Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart’s muscle becomes weak from a heart attack or disease of the heart muscle, long-standing diabetics, or high blood pressure. This results in a gradual loss of its ability to pump enough blood to supply the body’s needs.
The heart can be affected in two ways, either it becomes weak and is unable to pump blood or it becomes stiff and is unable to fill with blood adequately. Ultimately, both conditions lead to the retention of extra fluid or congestion. So, when patients develop symptoms we call it congestive heart failure. Many people don’t even know they have it because symptoms are often mistaken for signs of getting older. Heart failure does not develop overnight – it’s a progressive disease that starts slowly and gets worse over time.
It’s the leading cause of heart-related hospitalization and a large number of people are at risk of having a heart failure. Diabetics, coronary artery disease, high BP, heart muscle disease are a few common risk factors. Certain familial and genetic heart muscle diseases may also cause these conditions. Breathlessness at rest or during activity, swelling in the legs or the whole body, difficulty in lying down in the bed due to breathlessness and tiredness are some of the common symptoms.
An accurate diagnosis and assessment of the severity of heart failure are important. Various investigations like blood biomarkers, ECHO, and cardiac MRI can help in accurate and early diagnosis.
It’s managed by both drugs and devices like specialized pacemakers called cardiac resynchronization therapy or CRT and defibrillators. At a more advanced stage various implantable devices like assist device (LVADs or BiVADs), ECHO support and heart transplant can improve the overall outcome of advanced heart failure patients.
Despite the advancement in medicine, the outcome of heart failure is still grave. Repeated hospitalization, poor quality of life, and increased mortality are some of the major challenges in heart failure treatment. Hence a dedicated heart failure management team comprising of experts in heart failure management is the need of the hour.
