'Silent' heart condition warning that could kill 40,000 people in UK in five years
26.01.2022 - 15:47
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Tens of thousands of people in the UK with a silent heart condition could die over the next five years, analysis has found.
Research carried out by the NHS has estimated that there are 300,000 people that will be unable to get a diagnosis and treatment for aortic valve stenosis (AVS).
The condition occurs when the heart’s main value stiffens and narrows, which blocks blood flow into the main artery - the aorta, and the rest of the body.
Population data from 2019 found that the condition affects around 3.5 per cent of people over 75 and 1.5 per cent of people over 55. Many of these people will be undiagnosed with the condition, with symptoms only developing when the disease advances.
The BMJ estimated that without treatment, 59 per cent of those people in the UK with the condition will die between now and 2024, the Mirror reports.
Around 10,000 of these deaths will be among 55 to 64-year-olds, with 29,548 among 65 to 74-year-olds.
Prof Huon Gray, of NHS England and an author of the study, said: “The UK health service will struggle to cope with the sheer number of people needing treatment for this over the next few years, with the number set to rise further as the population ages.”
Many people only develop symptoms once the disease is already advanced when they can be too old for open-heart surgery.
Many undiagnosed Brits could still benefit from life-saving treatment, such as aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve implant (TAVI) surgery.
Previous analysis suggests that without symptoms, the chance of a sudden cardiac death is less than 1%. Once symptoms develop the risk goes up to 34%.
An international team of researchers, including experts from the Universities of Glasgow and Southampton, set out to