High blood pressure, bad cholesterol or elevated LDL, hyperglycemia. A triad of risk factors that by themselves endanger the heart and arteries and can even multiply their negative effects if they are present in association. Unfortunately, in real life, during the pandemic, the control of these “enemies” has weakened, also due to the objective difficulty of people in dealing with their general practitioner or pharmacist. So, now we need to recover, with increasing attention to cardiovascular prevention and in particular to hypertension: it affects about 30% of the population of both sexes, the probability of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction or cerebral stroke increases. . For this reason, identifying and treating it on a case-by-case basis is essential. But there is still a long way to go, given that many hypertensive people do not know they are hypertensive and those under treatment hardly reach the goals proposed by the doctor based on the risk profile.
Heart door
Unusual blood pressure and cholesterol, how to deal with the two enemies of heart health
at Federico Mereta
To remember it, data in hand, comes from “Save Your Heart”, A screening campaign supported by the Servier Group in Italy, conducted between May and July 2021 in 21 community pharmacies in 15 regions, also involving general practitioners. More than 500 people affected, aged 50 and over and with hypertension under treatment, to investigate undiagnosed and / or uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors. According to the results, published in the Italian Journal of Health Technology Assessment and Delivery, it is clear that even greater attention must be paid to prevention. “From the screening, rather alarming data emerged – he comments Claudio Ferri, Full Professor in Internal Medicine at the University of L’Aquila and past President of the Italian Society of Arterial Hypertension (Siia). 68% of the participants did not reach acceptable blood pressure values, 59% of the participants treated for hypercholesterolemia did not have target LDL cholesterol values while those who had declared not to be hypercholesterolemic, in 72% of cases had values higher than those indicated by the guidelines for Ldl cholesterol. On the other hand, 69% of diabetic hypertensive people do not have good control of their blood sugar and among those who declared that they do not have diabetes, equal to about 85% of the sample, typical blood glucose values were found. prediabetics and diabetics in 31% of cases. A further criticality comes from the fact that nearly half of the participants (49%) were found to have a high or very high risk of experiencing a fatal cardiovascular event at 10 years”.
Heart door
Hypertensive, almost one in five takes drugs that raise blood pressure (without knowing it)
at Federico Mereta
Information, relationship with doctor and pharmacist and awareness are also the weapons to fight atrial fibrillation, which increases the risk of developing a stroke up to five times if left untreated. Between January 2019 and December 2021, diagnoses of atrial fibrillation are estimated to have dropped by 6% with 41,000 new diagnoses lost during the pandemic. To help reverse this alarming trend, the National Institute for Cardiovascular Research (nrc) brings cardiovascular prevention information directly to the streets of Central Italy with “The Saturday of Health“. The initiative, carried out with the unconditional support of Daiichi Sankyo Italia, will touch Lazio, Abruzzo and Umbria. The squares of 7 municipalities that are located in areas far from hospital facilities will be reached by a camper equipped with portable echo-ECG and all the equipment necessary for cardiological evaluation. In these squares, from 10 to 15 on Saturday or Sunday, the medical and nursing staff accompanying the truck will be available to citizens to carry out free cardiovascular prevention screenings, with anamnesis, ECG with medical report, echocardiography, saturation control and pressure measurement.
Heart door
Pressure to the limits? Here’s what to do
at Federico Mereta
