Internist and cardiologist Emilia Martínez, one of the general coordinators of the consensus on heart failure, said that for 10 years there had not been an agreement on this cardiovascular disease in the country. The work took about a year. In Venezuela, according to the latest official epidemiological publication, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the country.
The Venezuelan Society of Cardiology (SVC) presented the new “Venezuelan Consensus on Acute and Chronic Heart Failure”, which sets out guidelines on proper diagnosis, comorbidities and related infectious diseases, pharmacological treatment and implantable devices.
More than 25 Venezuelan cardiologists and the former president of the Colombian Society of Cardiology Efraín Gómez participated in the development from the documentwhich was sponsored by Laboratorios Farma. This consensus also includes genetic evaluation, which has an important role in the prevention, diagnosis and monitoring of the disease.
An estimated 26 million people suffer from heart failure worldwide, according to figures from World Heart FederationThis disease, caused by structural or functional abnormalities of the heart, is the most frequent cause of admission in people over 65 years of age.
Statistical projections indicate that one in five people in the world will develop the disease during their lifetime. In Venezuela, according to the latest official epidemiological publication, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the country. Heart failure is the third cause of death.
Internist and cardiologist Emilia Martínez, one of the general coordinators of the consensus, said that there had been no agreement on this cardiovascular disease for 10 years. The work took about a year.
“There is a big gap in relation to heart failure, not only in Venezuela, but worldwide. Even though, for example, there are four initial medications for the treatment of HF, many patients do not receive them in full and that means that the patient does not receive all the benefits of decreased worsening or mortality,” said the specialist.
The consensus also includes a section on infections and the heart and heart failure in women.
«Previously, women were not included in cardiology research projects, just like men, because it was thought that they did not suffer from cardiovascular disease until very advanced ages and that they responded to treatments in the same way as men, but that is not true. One of the distinguishing characteristics of women is that their heart is a different size, therefore the calculation of their function in percentage is different,» explained the cardiologist.
Martínez stressed that the incidence in men and women is equal. “The female gender tends to delay cardiology consultations more due to daily obligations, even though the death rate in women with advanced heart failure is higher than that of men, and more women die from cardiovascular diseases than from breast cancer.”
With information from Press release
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