‘Awareness on inherited heart diseases still low among the youth’

There is still a significant lack of awareness on cardiac risks among the youth and the associated sudden cardiac death due to inherited cardiomyopathies and channelopathies, especially in India, said senior cardiology experts at Kauvery Hospital

There is still a significant lack of awareness on cardiac risks among the youth and the associated sudden cardiac death due to inherited cardiomyopathies and channelopathies, especially in India, said senior cardiology experts at Kauvery Hospital.

An international cardiogenetic symposium on “Recent Advancements in the Management of Inherited Heart Diseases” was organised by Kauvery Hospital wherein cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology from the U.K., the Netherlands, and India discussed the burden of inherited cardiac diseases.

India is one of the top-ranked countries with a high cardiac disease burden, where cardiocascular diseases account for 45% of the deaths in the 40–69 age group, according to a release. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and channelopathies are some of the common inherited heart diseases.

K.M. Cherian, a pioneer in pediatric and adult cardiac surgeries and heart and lung transplantation, and N. Sivakadaksham, who has been practising and teaching cardiology for over three decades, were honoured with the lifetime achievement award.

“The field of cardiogenetics is rapidly evolving and the availability of next-generation sequencing has made routing genetic testing affordable in India to identify the genetic change in the affected person and subsequent family screening,” said Anantharaman R., senior interventional cardiologist, Kauvery Hospitals.