Although, Heart is the strongest muscle of the human body, but gradual weakening of heart muscles reduces the heart functioning and patient leads to a condition called heart failure. However, this does not signify that heart has failed or stopped working instead establishes that the heart is working at a lesser pace resulting in inadequate supply of oxygenated blood to the whole body. This condition is often confused with a heart attack which is the sudden stoppage of blood supply to the heart due to blockage in the arteries. Heart failure can be life threatening if not treated in time. Hence, it is important to raise awareness about heart failure and address the issue of high mortality rate of more than twenty percent.
The advancement in the medical sciences in last decade has brought in many treatment options to help people live healthy and long life. Unfortunately, there is very low awareness in India about the disease and the available treatment options. Therefore, with an aim to spread awareness about heart failure the Times of India kickoff an initiative – Beat Heart Failure in partnership with Novartis. In this endeavor multiple panel discussions were conducted with the leading doctors of India’s best hospitals. Doctors from GKNM Hospital, Coimbatore have also participated in this initiative and talked about the symptoms of heart failure, its management and treatment.
Dr Ragupathy Veluswamy (BSC, MBBS, DCH, AB, FAAP, CHCQM, MMM, CPE, FACPE) Chief Executive Officer of the hospital congratulated! The Times of India for the pan India awareness campaign Beat Heart Failure and said that TOI strives to educate the public about the causes, prevention and management about heart failure by providing relevant information. GKNM Hospital is a pioneer in Interventional cardiology with highly equipped Cathlab and advanced Echocardiography department.
Doctors who have participated in the discussion are: Dr Rajpal K. Abhaichand: Department Chairman – Interventional Cardiologist, Director for Cardiovascular Research & Innovation Dr R. Shanmuga Sundaram: Chief Consultant – Heart Failure Clinic & Echocardiography https://fb.me/e/4iFqr1kwy Dr Abhaichand compared heart with a water pump. He said that the condition of heart failure begin when heart is unable to pump enough blood into the circulatory system of the human body, and weakness of the heart leads to backfill of the deoxygenated blood into the lungs causing congestion.
The commonest cause of heart failure is heart attack which often leads to compromised functioning of the heart impacting blood supply to the organs of human body.
Dr Sundaram also added and explained that there is an adverse impact on pumping capacity of the cardiac muscles in heart attack, due to that heart attack becomes the prime reason for heart failure. Now a days, these incidences of heart attack are increasing at a higher rate in the younger age group, and our youngsters are more exposed to risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking, sleeping apnea cause of present high voltage working and societal environment. The inability of the people to control the pre-existing comorbidity often make them victims of heart attack and consequently heart failure.
The signs and symptoms of heart failure begin to surface with the gradual weakening of heart muscles and reduced pumping of blood by heart, elaborated Dr Sundaram. The evident symptom to appear in heart failure is breathing difficulty. The patient will experience breathlessness during simple activities like walking or climbing stairs. As the disease progresses, patients exhibit enhanced shortness of breath in routine activities and reduced effort tolerance. Fluid build-up in organs is also seen on account of the backfilling of the blood in lungs, abdomen or legs.
Dr Abhaichand highlighted that people seek medical attention when they are confronted with significant difficulties like inability to sleep, getting up at night, failure or complain of the increased problems in performing their routine tasks. The sudden change in their functioning capacities makes them reach out to us. At this stage working of heart is severely deteriorated in many cases.
He envisioned that our success will be when we can identify or alert the people before symptoms strike them. Community outreach programmes on heart failure or similar plans are needed to educate people to understand slight changes and monitoring symptoms. .
Dr Sundaram said that the preventive health checkup should start with targeting risk factors. Routine blood investigations inclusive of blood pressure, blood sugar and routine ECG should be done. The findings from investigations of these tests can be the basis for further evaluation of additional parameters based on the advice of the healthcare providers to assess extent of damage, when any abnormal variations are observed. Targeting of risk factors and management of symptoms are critical components to halt the progress of the disease, if caught in time.
Based on the symptoms, the patients are categorized as pre heart failure or heart failure cases. Accordingly, the treatment is planned and administered. The patients and their caregivers need to fully understand the importance of adhering to the treatment and medication. Often it is observed that people discontinue their medicines if they don’t feel any symptoms. It is important to remember that discontinuing the medication is a self-inflicting damage which might become unmanageable.
Dr Abhaichand touched upon the delicate issue of reassuring the anxious patients and their family members with correct prognosis. Apart from prescribing medications, doctor should give them confidence that heart failure is not a death sentence. But at the same time, it is of paramount importance to share the realistic expectations with thepatients that they will have a near normal condition after treatment. The patients can resume normal working, can go for long walks and enjoy a quality of life that people with normal heart live.
The most familiar causes of re-hospitalization are failure to stick to medication schedule, overlooking risk factors and emergence of some unrelated disease. In addition, the water intake and urine output chart should be maintained to monitor fluid retention in the body and help in maintaining body weight. Water accumulation and other uncontrolled risk factors like blood pressure put an avoidable burden on the heart.
Heart failure is a slow progressing disease and irrespective of the progress and visible improvement in the condition of patient, they must continue to follow medication protocol and be in touch with their doctors. Regular contact with doctor serves twin purpose. It helps monitoring the influence based on the prognosis. Moreover, regular visits to the doctor might provide you with new, better and advanced medicines.
When the conventional management does not offer cure, then cardiac resynchronization therapy is recommended based on the assessment and evaluation of the patients. It is a sort of pacemaker but works differently. Heart failure devices help the heart to beat in synchronous manner.
In advanced stage heart failure, left ventricular assist device is recommended. It may work as a destination therapy in patients waiting for heart transplant.
Whereas, patients get a new lease on life with a heart transplant with a longevity of five years in seventy percent cases. It is crucial to stick to medicines and get a timely follow up. The biggest challenge is the lack of the availability of organ.
It is important to understand that treatment options are available for every stage of heart failure and a near normal life is possible if caught early. The patient is supposed to have a healthy lifestyle, manage their fluid intake and stop any action that may affect the heart.
Remember, heart failure isn’t about stopping. It’s about starting life in a new way. It can be managed with regular treatment and right lifestyle modifications. To know more about how to manage heart failure, visit https://www.toibeatheartfailure.com/patientguide.php Disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed in the article by the panelists/experts are based on their independent professional judgement and are disseminated in public interest. These views should not be considered as a substitute for professional advice of a registered medical practitioner. The purpose of this article is not to promote any medical procedures or medication and/or recommend a certain doctor. For any specific health issues, please consult your registered medical practitioner.” PWR PWR
