Ravi, 29, (name changed) was in a shock when he was diagnosed with rare heart disease (aortoarteritis also known as Takayasu’s arteritis), when he landed at the RMl hospital for treatment of massive swollen upper limbs and thigh areas due to which he was not able to walk and move his hands.
According to a cardiologist at RMl Hospital, during the medical investigation the patient was diagnosed with aortoarteritis, due to which patient’s major arteries were blocked and led to severe swelling of his upper limbs and thighs. These blocked arteries could have ruptured at anytime leading to fatal heart attack, said the doctor.
Dr Neeraj Pandit, Head of Cardiology Department at RMl Hospital said, “Aortoarteritis is a rare heart disease. Patient suffers movement problems in limbs due to major swelling of the arteries and blockage of blood. This could become fatal at any time as the arteries can burst and patient could die due to heart attack.”
“The major arteries supplying blood to heart, both the right upper limb, left and right main coronary artery were blocked 99 per cent and it was urgent to treat the patient,” Dr Pandit told The Pioneer.
Post surgery the patient has recovered well, said Dr Vivek Dashore, senior resident at the Cardiology Department.
The cause of Takayasu’s arteritis is not known. Some evidence suggests that an infection of some kind — viral, bacterial, or other — occurring in a person with other predisposing factors (such as the correct genes), may lead to this disease. This is an attractive hypothesis, but definitive evidence is lacking, said Dr Pandit, adding that previously, doctors had come across the disease in Japan.
According to the medical journal of Jonhs Hopkins medicine, the disease is a rare disease with chronic inflammatory condition that affects the largest blood vessel in the body (the aorta) and its branches. The best estimates of the disease frequency suggest that 2 or 3 cases occur each year per million people in a population mostly in women under the age of 40 years. In 1908, the first case of the aortoarteritis was diagnosed in Japan in a female.
Health experts said current challenges include lack of awareness about the condition, delays in diagnosis, and suboptimal methods for assessing disease activity.
Sharing an incident of a senior doctor at RMl, who died due to heart attack at the hospital gate a month back, Dr (Prof) Vijay Gupta, cardiothoracic surgeon at RMl, said, “After this incident, many doctors should have queued at Cardiology Department for the checkups, but it is sad that nobody listens. Everybody should maintain healthy style, but nobody follows.”
RMl conducts 600 open heart surgeries in a year of these 150-200 surgeries are done for Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, said Dr Gupta.
As per WHO, 30 million heart patients resides in India, 14 million reside in urban areas and 16 million in rural areas.
On the occasion of World Heart Day, VK Sinha, who is spokesperson of RMl have appealed people for healthy lifestyle to prevent cardiovascular diseases