CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
The magnitude of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its toll are staggering. Consider that an estimated 79.4 million American adults – that’s one in three – have one or more types of CVD. Of this number, 15.8 million have coronary heart disease (CHD) – the single largest killer of both American males and females.

About every 26 seconds, an American will suffer a coronary event, and about every minute an American will die from one. Of the 1.2 million Americans who have heart attacks each year, a significant portion of them will require costly clinical care and medications. And with survival rates of first-episode CV events at an all-time high, these patients could remain in a physician’s care for decades to come.

The estimated direct and indirect cost of CVD in the United States for 2007 is $431.8 billion. Beyond the monetary, CVD exacts additional costs in reduced quality of life and the burden it places on healthcare facilities and society as a whole.

While there is no cure for CVD, new medical technologies are enabling earlier detection and faster and more efficient diagnosis, which have the potential to increase the quality of cardiac care while reducing costs.

For example, dual-source computed tomography (CT) is allowing physicians to perform cardiac exams on patients with elevated heart rates without the need to slow a patient’s heart with beta blocker medications. Hybrid molecular imaging technologies, such as PET-CT (positron emission tomography) and SPECT-CT, (single photon emission tomography) are helping physicians identify heart disease in its earliest form – before symptoms appear – and provide more personalized treatment to patients. Ultrasound advances, such as Velocity Vector Imaging™(VVI) technology, are providing new insight into the cardiovascular function, allowing clinicians to more effectively perform Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT), a treatment for improving the coordination of the heart’s contractions. And interventional techniques are providing alternatives to more invasive surgical procedures, helping reduce length of patient hospital stays and the overall cost of treatment.

In addition, advances in information technologies are placing information where caregivers need it most – at the point of care – and incorporating disease management across the continuum of care.

FAST FACTS

• This year an estimated 700,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack and about 500,000 will have a recurrent attack. An estimated 175,000 silent first heart attacks occur each year.
• CVD claims more lives each year than the next four leading causes of death combined.
• Mortality data show CVD as the underlying cause of death accounted for 36.3 percent of all 2,398,000 deaths in 2004, or one of every 2.8 deaths in the United States.
• According to the National Center for Health Statistics, if all forms of major CVD were eliminated, life expectancy would rise by almost seven years. And the probability at birth of eventually dying from major CVD is 47 percent.
• In 2004, there were 72.6 million physician office visits and 4.1 million visits to emergency departments with a primary diagnosis of CVD.
• In 2004, an estimated 6.3 million inpatient cardiovascular operations and procedures were performed in the United States.
• 50 percent of men and 64 percent of women who died suddenly of CHD had no previous symptoms of this disease.

THOUGHT LEADER: Redefining the Meaning of Living with CVD

  Bappa Choudhury[63 KB], Vice President of Segment Management, Global Solutions, Siemens Medical Solutions. Prior to assuming this role, Choudhury held several positions at Siemens, all with increasing responsibility, including service engineer, Angiography and X-ray division product manager, service marketing manager and sales executive. In 2002, he was named Division Manager of the Year. Choudhury holds a Masters of Business Administration from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree from McGill University, Montreal.