Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Heart patients, specifically the coronary artery disease (CAD) sufferers, continually become younger, according to a one-year record of cardiac emergency procedures conducted at a catherization laboratory (Cath Lab) in one of the private hospitals in Dubai.

As explained in the “Coronary Heart Disease Burden” section of “The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke” of the World Health Organization (WHO), CAD is similar to cardiovascular diseases. Two of their signs and symptoms are chest pain (angina) and heart attack (myocardial infarction) that happen because “the blood vessels supplying the heart muscles become blocked, starving it of oxygen, leading to the heart muscle’s failure or death.”

The observational report on the young CAD patients was released on Monday.

A subsequent email interview with Aster Hospital-Mankhool specialist Interventional Cardiology Dr. Naveed Ahmed had revealed that a 23-year-old man was the youngest among the 1,000 cardiac patients the Cath Lab team had attended to since the inauguration on July 22, 2018.  

From the 1,000 were “an average two to three heart attack patients every day in addition to up to 50 patients referred every month for angiogram from clinics on an elective basis for chest pain associated with a positive treadmill test suggesting blockage in the blood supply to the heart.”

The 23-year-old patient was a “non-smoker, non-diabetic and non-hypertensive but with a strong family history of CAD.”

In the report, consultant Interventional Cardiology Dr. Amal Louis said “majority of them (belong to the) younger segment of expatriates living in the UAE who appear to be increasingly prone to CAD due to a number of reasons and they get it at a much earlier age than observed in the rest of the world.”

Ahmed said majority of the July 2018 to July 2019 Cath Lab patients were from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, between 30 and 40 years old: “A good number were in their late 20s.”  

A Cath Lab is a highly-specialized room equipped with a technologically-advanced imaging equipment that assists doctors in performing minimal invasive tests and procedures on cardiac patients.

Louis said heart attack patients are taken to the Cath Lab for the required surgery such as angioplasty and stenting “when an artery has 100 per cent blockage: “This procedure, when done early on an emergency basis on patients with a major heart attack, has proved to save lives at a higher rate.”

Ahmed said, “Angiogram is a procedure done by using a small tube through a patient’s wrist or leg. The heart arteries can be visualized by injecting a dye, so any blockage can be identified early and treated to prevent heart attacks. Now, even heart valves can be replaced in a Cath Lab without open surgery.”

On the Orbital Artherectomy technique, this “cracks” the hardened calcified vessels—atherosclerosis—a consequence of the hard cholesterol substances stored within the coronary arteries.

This novel technique is the best option compared to bypass surgery and angioplasty, “the results were short-lived, and patients had significant complications.”

The one-year 1,000 cases observational report magnified the June to mid-September 2018 clinical data of the hospital known as the “Heart Disease Striking Indian Expats Younger Than Ever Data.”

It comprised of 142 Cath Lab patients: 94 Indians, 20 Pakistanis, 11 Bangladeshis, nine Filipinos and the Egyptians, British, Sri Lankan, Serbian, Nigerian and Nepalese at one each.

The age of the “first-time heart attack victims” were 81 45 to 60-year-old, 45 below 45 years old, 16 over 61 years old, and 106 under 55 years old.

The average age of Filipinos was younger than 45, majority of whom were heavy smoking women.