People over 70, in particular, and with symptoms such as shortness of breath, sudden fatigue in daily activities, chest discomfort and feeling faint or fainting, should not postpone medical consultation , for they may suffer from a cardiovascular disease such as aortic stenosis. And when they have already been diagnosed with this disease, they should not postpone the surgical intervention or other intervention prescribed by the doctor – alerted on TVI channel Rui Campante Teles , Hospital da Luz Lisboa interventional cardiologist and member of the Portuguese Association of Cardiovascular Intervention (APIC). Aortic stenosis is a disease estimated to affect over 30 thousand Portuguese. Our heart comprises four valves, and aortic stenosis, explained Rui Campante Teles, is a disease of one of the heart’s valves: “The valves prevent the blood from coming back, when going in the direction of the aorta. This stop happening, when there is a tightening of one of the valves”, affecting the blood circulation. Anyone having symptoms as the above mentioned, “must see the doctor, who will start by auscultating the chest and listening to the ‘murmur’ of the blood passing through those valves, which indicates the presence of the disease”. The treatment of aortic stenosis consists in the replacement of the defective valve, through surgery or catheterization. “In Portugal, every year, about 800 catheterization interventions are performed, and with COVID-19, there was a reduction of 20-50% in the several hospital centres of the country – a temporary reduction that is recovering and must continue to recover, for we are talking about a serious disease”, added the cardiologist. “It is very important to realize that there is not just COVID-19 and that there are, in fact, patients losing their lives with diseases such as aortic stenosis, myocardial infarction and stroke, that stop taking treatment and do not resort to health services for fear. Statistics show that the mortality increase is due not only to COVID-19, and it is suspected that people are not accessing healthcare as they did before”, he concluded. Rui Campante Teles on TVI channel The importance of maintain access to healthcare , in acute and chronic cases, as well as cardiac interventions during these times of pandemic, was also the theme of an interview of Rui Campante Teles to Visão Saúde magazine. “There were cardiac patients who refused to be treated during the pandemic, and ultimately died”, highlighted the cardiologist, that is also the coordinator of the campaign “Corações de Amanhã” (Tomorrow Hearts), an initiative of APIC having for purpose to promote awareness and understanding of valvular cardiac disease. Interview of Rui Campante to Visão Saúde magazine
