By Leilani S. Junio
MANILA, Feb. 3 (PNA) — The Philippine Heart Association (PHA) launched Tuesday its 2014 Philippine Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).
CAD is a disease in which a waxy substance called “plaque” (plak) builds up inside the coronary arteries which supply oxygen-rich blood to heart muscle.
When this builds up in the arteries, it develops into condition atherosclerosis.
According to Dr. Helen Ong-Garcia, PHA director/advocacy committee chair, the updated clinical practice guidelines aim to assist Filipino physicians in Metro Manila and in the entire country on treating CAD.
During the launching at the Annabel’s Restaurant in Tomas Morato, Quezon City, initiated by the Philippines College of Physician, Dr. Garcia said that such guidelines will help a lot of Filipino doctors in making clinical decisions in the management of coronary artery diseases.
“The new guidelines are more appropriate and based on the local or Philippine setting which does not follow the international settings,” she said.
She added that it is timely for the Philippines to have its own applicable guidelines based on the real time practice conducted here since the country is geographically different from other countries in the world.
“With this, we can prove that Filipino cardiologists are no longer 100 percent dependent on foreign guidelines, a breakthrough in Philippine cardiology practice because we use local variables and clinical data,” she noted.
Garcia, however, said that the guidelines can be comparatively similar with other Southeast Asian neighbors who have almost the same geographical settings.
Dr. Liberty Yaneza, past chair of PHA council on CAD, cited that such guidelines was something they consider a big achievement and can contribute a lot in improving the quality of care of Filipino patients with the life-threatening disease.
Dr. Yaneza added that they created the taxing job of guidelines and registry since 2009 and updated them in 2014 wherein the real-world clinical practice in the local setting was reflected.
“The guidelines will surely assist local Filipino doctors in making clinical decision in the management of coronary artery syndrome,” she said.
“We are planning to distribute the guidelines through lectures so we can present them in the different hospitals and provinces to give them (doctors) ideas on how to treat coronary artery disease” said Dr. Victor Lazaro, PHA chair, council on Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD) Guidelines.
“This should not necessarily be followed but at least with this more Filipino doctors will further be guided accordingly,” he said.
Based on the current data of the Department of Health (DOH) in 2010, about 170,000 persons die every year due to heart ailments.
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) or heart and blood vessels diseases rank among the top 10 leading causes of sickness in the country while heart disease are among the top killers of Filipinos.
Registry data gathering for Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) started in November 2011 and is still ongoing.
The ACS registry is done to determine the association of first heart attack with smoking, lipids, diabetes, obesity, and other risk factors to help define the kind of intervention to avert deaths from heart ailments.
The guidelines and registry ultimate aim is to find out the outcome or how many were effectively treated and managed among the high risk groups, find out trends or even encourage change of the usual practice to follow evidence guidelines.(PNA)