'Healthy' Pakistanis turn out to be walking heart risks
“A nationwide health study has found a strikingly high burden of heart-disease risk among Pakistanis who considered themselves healthy, with nearly half showing high blood pressure, around one-third di…”
The preliminary findings of the Pak Sehat Study were presented at a seminar held at the University of Karachi's Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in connection with World Heart Day. The event was organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Cardiac Society and Pharm.
Evo. Tabba Heart Director Dr Bashir Hanif said the study had screened around 2,000 people aged 30 to 65 from across Pakistan, with participants selected in proportion to the population of each province.
All participants considered themselves healthy, but their medical histories, physical examinations, blood tests and diagnostic assessments - including CT angiography and ultrasound - revealed multiple previously unidentified risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
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The preliminary results showed that around 45 per cent of participants had high blood pressure, 35 per cent had diabetes and nearly 70 per cent had elevated cholesterol levels. Between 72 and 80 per cent were found to be obese.
Dr Hanif said obesity was closely linked with high blood pressure, diabetes and elevated cholesterol, all of which could subsequently increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases. He said South Asians tended to develop heart disease at a younger age and that heart attacks were now being reported even among people under 30.
The study, he said, was examining premature narrowing of coronary arteries and associated risk factors among young and middle-aged Pakistanis to determine why cardiovascular disease was emerging at relatively young ages in the country.
Blood samples from all participants have been preserved for genetic analysis, while dietary, environmental and lifestyle factors will also be studied to identify possible causes of premature heart disease. Participants will be followed for the next 10 years, with their medical histories, physical examinations and blood tests repeated at different stages.
CT angiography will also be repeated after five and 10 years. NICVD Director of Cardiac Imaging Prof Dr Saba Bhatti said a national registry was also screening apparently healthy pregnant women at antenatal clinics across the country through echocardiography.
She said two research reports based on the registry had found that about four out of every 100 women screened had previously undiagnosed heart or heart-valve disease.
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