NEARBY DELHI
According to a study published in the Global Heart magazine, almost one in every two patients who experience a full-blown heart attack by a blocked artery are undiagnosed diabetics or pre-diabetics. This condition is known clinically as ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). The conclusion is based on the screening outcomes of 3,523 North Indian patients who received STEMI treatment between January 2019 and February 2020 at G B Pant Hospital and Janakpuri Super Specialty Hospital, two of Delhi’s top hospitals. Of them, only 855 (24%) were known to have diabetes.
Testing done to measure blood sugar levels at the time of hospitalization revealed that 41% of the population was either pre-diabetic (28%) or diabetic (13%), but they were unaware of it. Cardiovascular illnesses are recognized to be at risk due to diabetes. According to Dr. Mohit Gupta, the study’s primary investigator and corresponding author, early detection and treatment of diabetes may have decreased the risk of heart attack (STEMI) in many of these patients.
Everyone at least 18 years old should regularly get tested for diabetes. In the future, this will benefit patients in preventing catastrophic consequences like a heart attack, he said.
He continued by saying that diabetes increases the chance of having a heart attack and worsens its effects. According to the study, patients with pre-diabetes (49%), newly-detected diabetes (53%), and established diabetes (48%) had greater rates of left ventricular failure following a heart attack compared to non-diabetics (42%), the doctor from G B Pant Hospital said.
Diabetes was not properly managed, even in cases when it had been diagnosed.
The study found that many patients’ blood sugar levels were out of control, linked to worse outcomes.
Overall, according to the authors, the data reveals shortcomings in the surveillance and management of dysglycemia (increased blood sugar levels) among high-risk patients in North India.
