Medicalfacts Editorial / Janine Budding January 2, 2024 – 8:22 PM
GPs can proactively detect cardiovascular disease earlier in people at increased risk. Researchers published this today in a scientific journal The Lancet Public Health. To this end, it is important that general practitioners are reinforced. What exactly this looks like will have to be determined by further research.
The Heart Foundation funded the research carried out by the university medical centers of Utrecht, Groningen and Rotterdam and the Twente University of Technology.
Heart failure, atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease. These are the three chronic heart diseases that general practitioners from 25 practices throughout the Netherlands looked for. It is important to catch them quickly for all these diseases. If patients do not receive the right treatment in time, the heart will continue to deteriorate. Ultimately, this can also cause a heart attack or cerebral infarction.
Higher risk
People who participated in the study were already being checked by their GP for COPD or type 2 diabetes. They have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Half of the patients received usual care. In the other half, the GP actively looked for signs of the three heart diseases mentioned using a questionnaire, physical examination, an ECG and blood tests. In case of abnormalities, referral to the cardiologist and ultrasound of the heart followed.
Twice as often diagnosed
In people who received additional examination, the GP diagnosed one or more of the diseases heart failure, atrial fibrillation or coronary artery disease more than twice as often. The most commonly diagnosed heart disease was heart failure. This is a serious condition that is becoming increasingly common. A late start to treatment increases the chance that someone will end up in hospital and that someone will die prematurely.
Doable
This is the first successful proactive early detection of cardiovascular disease by a general practitioner that is also easily feasible. “To early detect people with incipient cardiovascular disease, techniques are usually required that can only be applied in the hospital, such as CT scans or an ultrasound of the heart,” says GP and lead researcher Prof. Dr. Frans Rutten. “But people with only few complaints do not come to the hospital at all. Our research shows that with simple and cheap examination of people with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, general practitioners can select those who do need follow-up heart examination in hospital.”
Forward
Rutten emphasizes that the GP only sends someone to the hospital if that person has complaints and shows abnormalities in the blood test or ECG. The cardiologist then checks whether one of the three heart diseases is indeed present. If this is the case, the causes will be investigated and the cardiologist will initiate the appropriate treatment. When this has been successful, the GP takes over the care again.
To apply
If all general practitioners were to apply this proactive method, many more people with cardiovascular disease could be treated on time. But before that happens, some things still need to be done, says Rutten: “Training and support for general practitioners will be needed to implement this properly. This also requires help from health insurers; that they recognize this as an extra activity. We hope to find out in a follow-up study what exactly we need to do to ensure that this happens throughout the Netherlands.”
Source: The Heart Foundation
Editorial Medicalfacts / Janine Budding
I studied physiotherapy and health care business administration. I am also a registered independent client supporter and informal care broker. I have a lot of experience in various positions in healthcare, the social domain and the medical and pharmaceutical industries, nationally and internationally. And I have broad medical knowledge of most specialties in healthcare. And the healthcare laws from which healthcare is regulated and financed. I attend most of the leading medical conferences in Europe and America every year to keep my knowledge up to date and to keep up with the latest developments and innovations. I am currently doing a Masters in applied psychology.
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2024-01-02 19:36:50
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