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Heart attacks, cardiac deaths common among youngsters

DUBAI: A clinical data study of 142 Patients, initiated by Aster Hospitals Dubai, observed that a range of heart diseases strikes the younger generation in the UAE.

Data analysis across people from multiple ethnicities and age groups of South East Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are most at risk for developing heart diseases in the prime years of their life. In fact, the disease strikes them almost a decade earlier than their Western counterpart, said Aster in an advisory.

The observational clinical study was conducted on patients from diverse backgrounds with coronary artery disease (CAD) and had undergone interventional procedures at Aster Hospital’s Cath lab in the last three months.

Dr. Sachin Upadhyaya, Specialist Cardiologist, and Dr. Naveed Ahmed, Specialist Interventional Cardiologist from Aster Hospitals, who worked behind the real-time clinical data from the Cath lab procedure presented their observations at a recent press conference in Dubai.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Sherbaz Bichu, CEO at Aster Hospitals Dubai, said, “We conducted the clinical study aimed at creating awareness among the expatriate population to take care of their heart health eventually leading to the wellbeing of their families, the nation and the economy. We are currently at the forefront of battling coronary artery diseases among the expats. This is because heart attacks and cardiac deaths have become so common among the youngsters here.”

Image AsterHospital PressMeet

Elaborating on the clinical study, Upadhyaya said, “Our clinical data is a reminder that prevention should start early in life before problems develop. Cardiac disease is now far from rare in younger men. It gets little attention when a 70- or 80-year-old succumbs to it, but our eyes widen when a 30- or 40-year-old is stricken. In fact, the risk of heart disease rises steadily and sharply with age.”

Ahmed said that coronary artery disease is now no more a disease of senior citizens. “We observed in the study that conventional coronary artery disease affects the young adults, causing early heart attacks among them. This deserves the most attention. It’s a reminder that men should not ignore warning symptoms just because they are ‘too young’ to have heart disease.”

“In the study, we reviewed cases of nearly 142 patients who underwent surgical intervention at Aster Hospital due to CAD. About 57 per cent of them were in the age group of 45 to 60 years, followed by 31.7 per cent aged less than 45 years, 11.3 per cent belonging to the age group above 61 years and nearly 74.6 per cent were less than 55 years,” he added.

Out of the total patients, 66.2 per cent were Indians, while 14.1 per cent were Pakistan nationals. The other nationalities included expats from Bangladesh, Philippines, UK and Egypt, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and Serbia.

“At all ages, hypertension is the most powerful single contributor to the CAD with 43 per cent of the patients in the study. While diabetes mellitus stands second for the disease among 39 per cent of the patients. Smoking proved to be another major cause with 20 per cent of patients being smokers and 3 per cent ex-smokers,” Upadhyaya elaborated.

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