Date:17/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/17/stories/2004051709650300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`Abnormal rhythm, cause for heart attack'

By R. Sujatha

CHENNAI, MAY 16. About 30 per cent of those suffering heart attacks never reach hospitals and they die for lack of treatment. Many of them may have suffered more from irregular rhythm of the heart, known as arrhythmia. It is treatable and requires little medication.

Heart attack may occur owing to various factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, sedentary lifestyle or diabetes. The disorders in the rhythm of the heart cause palpitations, breathlessness and loss of consciousness and sometimes lead to sudden death.

Attacks may occur either because the heart is unable to contract or it may be due to an abnormal rhythm of the heart. Cardiologists specialising in electrocardiology say that about 20 per cent of the people reporting with heart attack suffer from abnormal rhythm of the heart.

Ulhas Pandurangi, senior consultant cardiologist at the Madras Medical Mission, which organised a continuing medical education programme, said heart failure and arrhythmia were two different conditions and both needed to be treated. Often expensive therapies were not needed as heart attack might be due to arrhythmia. The arrhythmia treatment was inexpensive and did not involve medication. At present, laser beams were used to treat muscles in the heart that cause arrhythmia. This "makes the muscles behave," he said.

More than 200 physicians and cardiologists in the city attended the programme on arrhythmia. It discussed advancements in electrophysiology and included speeches by well-known city-based cardiologists. About 225 doctors, including general physicians, students of medicine and practising cardiologists participated.

K.P. Mishra, senior consultant cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals, who inaugurated the session, traced the milestones in the evolution of electrophysiology.