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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Can Pacemakers Help Heart Disease Patients Prevent Stroke? In Singapore, every 1 in 4 elderly stroke patients could have been spared if they were treated with their prior heart problems using device like pacemaker. Pacemaker is a tiny electronic device used to regulate heartbeats that are too slow, too fast, or irregular. Such conditions, known as arrhythmias, are found in many people, and unfortunately it could lead to stroke, or sudden death for some patients. A common arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation, where the upper heart chamber can no longer pump out blood. Though blood continues to flow out of the heart, it is sluggish. After some time, the blood starts forming clots that could flow to the brain and cause a stroke. A pacemaker can send the correct electrical signals to activate the upper chamber to pump normally. Problem can also occur in the lower heart chamber. If so, the heart can flutter uselessly. Unless it is shocked back into proper action, it could stop working altogether within minutes. Such problem could be treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Besides acting as a pacemaker, ICD can also shock-start a heart that has stopped. Apart from its higher cost, ICD carry slightly more risk, too. For example, it can shock the heart unnecessarily and should only be used unless patients are at risk of sudden death.
With the help of a simple operation that takes about an hour or two, pacemaker can be placed under the skin or in the abdomen and connected to the heart. These devices are considered fairly safe, as they have been in use for half a century. Every year, about 400 to 500 people in Singapore have installed pacemaker and it is estimated that more than 3,000 people are already walking around with pacemakers. According to National Heart Centre (NHC), the take-up rate of pacemakers is low as compared with most other developed countries. In 2005, only 91 out of a million people in Singapore had fitted with pacemakers while more than 300 out of a million had already done so in countries like United States, Belgium, France and Italy. Italy has the highest number of 700 out of a million, partly because of their older population. A pacemaker can cost from $3,000 (US$2,150) for a basic unit to $15,000 (US$10,070) for a more sophisticated model, while ICD is more expensive, costing between $10,000 (US$7,140) and $50,000 (US$35,710) each. Since large government subsidies have been given for the devices, health experts do not think cost but cite lack of knowledge on the part of both doctors and patients as the reason for the low take-up rate. Very often, patients do not realize the seriousness of the symptoms they have, such as fainting spells, near blackouts and breathlessness after walking. Many people think such symptoms are common for older people, though in some cases, that might be true. These symptoms could simply mean the heart chambers are not beating properly. Therefore, it is important for people with similar symptoms to have their hearts checked by doctors to see if they need either a pacemaker or an ICD.
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