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In Spain, 70,000 acute myocardial infarctions occur every year, of which 30,000 do not arrive at the hospital on time. The World Health Organization speaks of a heart attack every 5 seconds, which implies that the first cause of death in the world is cardiovascular diseases.
Madrid on February 27, 2023.- Many people who have suffered a heart attack live thinking that the heart attack can happen again. In fact, according to the European Society of Cardiology, one in five people who have suffered a heart attack will have another within a year, because most of these patients do not take the measures prescribed by their doctor to protect their hearts. According to the Euroaspire study, carried out in 22 European countries, 21% of people with a heart attack continue to smoke, 38% are obese and overweight, and 60% do not perform physical activity, which places them in an optimal position to return to suffer a second heart attack.
Paulina Lago, president of APACOR, Association of Coronary Patients, stresses that cardiac rehabilitation must be encouraged, since the majority of post-infarct patients live in great fear and find it difficult to adequately follow medical guidelines and treatments. And she adds that for this reason she has renewed the collaboration agreement with the European Institute of Health and Social Welfare, chaired by Dr. Manuel de la Peña, professor of cardiology, in possession of the APACOR Gold Badge for the merits of he. De la Peña affirms that one of the purposes of this agreement is to develop a tutorial as a guide for the heart, to promote education and self-care and, especially, to transmit to coronary patients the knowledge and skills in managing treatments and styles of life, that allow them to improve their quality of life. She goes on to say that a heart attack should be diagnosed early, when precordial pain, sweating, nausea, and vomiting are detected. She will also assess whether there are changes in the electrocardiogram and, in addition, observe if there is an elevation of cardiac enzymes in the blood as a consequence of cell rupture.
On the other hand, Dr. Manuel de la Peña emphasizes that 90% of patients who suffer a heart attack previously have cardiovascular risk factors, such as elevated lipoprotein and LDL, which are highly atherogenic fractions of cholesterol that directly influence in the heart attack In fact, they cause the hardening of the arteries by deposits of cholesterol plaques and other substances, which reduces the caliber of the artery. Likewise, he adds that heart attack patients with hypertension do not have adequate control of their blood pressure, since the optimal blood pressure levels should be 130/70 mmHg. And the same thing happens with heart attack patients with a lack of adequate control of their diabetes or prediabetes or testosterone deficiency. For all these reasons, Dr. Manuel de la Peña points out that adherence to treatments must be encouraged, since drugs extend life, reduce symptoms and prevent hospital admissions to ICUs, as has been observed in numerous studies, as in "CardioCheck" and "Cardiopatients".
In this sense, he goes on to state that this agreement with Apacor will make it possible to launch educational programs that teach coronary patients to assess early the precordial pain characteristic of a heart attack. It is also intended to teach how to manage doses of nitroglycerin spray under the tongue in emergency cases, to control their hypertensive crises and their glucose levels, as well as to encourage moderate physical exercise. Post-infarction patients will also be made aware of the latest cardiac imaging tests such as Coronary Angiotac and Stress Resonance, which allow early diagnosis of pathologies of the heart and its coronary arteries. And all these guidelines will be included in the tutorial that the European Institute of Health and Social Welfare is preparing and that will help people with a heart attack to protect themselves against a second attack. He ends by pointing out that the most important thing in the treatment of a heart attack is to open the artery as soon as possible, since the less time the artery has been closed, the less damage that remains in the heart as a sequel.
De la Peña, in addition to being a professor of cardiology, is an Academic, Doctor Cum Laude and writer. The books he has published are: "Heart Treatise" (2010), "Patients' Needs" (2010), "Cardiopatients" (2010), "Healthy Companies" (2010), "e-Health" (2010) , "Health Excellence: patients, innovation and technologies" (2009), "Patient Satisfaction" (2008), "Tobacco Control" (2006), "WHO Health Surveillance Guide" (2002), "Quality in Health Care" (1999), "Cardiocheck" (1993).
Contact
Contact name: Mariam Peña
Contact telephone number: 34 914118090
