Targeted screening of diabetic patients ‘could double heart condition diagnoses’
Targeted screening of patients with type 2 diabetes could more than double new diagnoses of heart conditions, a study suggests.
When applied at a larger scale, such an approach could translate into tens of thousands of new diagnoses, researchers believe.
Conditions such as coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation and heart failure affect millions of people worldwide, causing a large number of deaths and increasing healthcare costs.
Treatments are available that can prevent stroke or acute heart failure, but systematic screening is not currently common practice.
Those living with conditions such as type 2 diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties – are at high risk of such conditions.
A team of researchers led by Dr Amy Groenewegen, from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, has developed a three-step screening process to detect conditions in high-risk people at an early stage.
Study author Dr Groenewegen said: “An easy-to-implement strategy more than doubled the number of new diagnoses of heart failure, atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease in high-risk patients.”
Source: Independent, 29 August 2023