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medpundit |
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Thursday, February 20, 2003Britain has one of the highest death rates from heart disease in Western Europe but offers less treatment to sufferers than its neighbours, specialists said yesterday. Experts speculate on the reason for the difference: Professor John Martin, consultant cardiologist at University College London and spokesman for the ESC, said it was likely that genetic differences made Northern Europeans more susceptible to heart disease than those from further south which, when combined with differences in lifestyle, accounted for the difference in death rates. "Having high cholesterol levels might have helped us survive the winter in the past but now it is working against us," he said. Or maybe it's just because the British eat stuff like this. And then, there's this interesting statement: ESC research showed that only a fifth of doctors in France and Poland adhered to guidelines compared to a third in Germany, and Italy and three quarters of doctors in Spain and the UK. Professor Martin said: "We make an objective assessment of the risk based on measures including cholesterol level, blood pressure and smoking while doctors from most other countries do it by the seat of their pants. So, the doctors who practice "by the seat of their pants" achieve lower mortality rates than the ones who follow guidelines stringently? So much for guidelines. posted by Sydney on 2/20/2003 08:18:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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