Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Western countries.
In Europe, the heart and vessels claim the most victims. Despite a slight decline over the past two decades, more than 4 million people lose their lives each year, of whom about 1 million are under the age of 75.
Italian Situation
From ISTAT 2019 data (for the year 2018), cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in our country, being responsible for 44% of all fatalities. In particular, ischemic heart disease (mainly represented by heart attack) is the leading cause of death in Italy, accounting for 28% of all deaths, while cerebrovascular accidents (stroke) are in third place with 13%, right after cancer.
Among cardiac ischemia, heart attacks, heart and vascular diseases, more than 260,000 people die in Italy each year.
Unfortunately, the first available data show that in the Covid era this number is likely to grow exponentially, given the very large number of health care resources conveyed to the management of the pandemic.
It should also be noted that diseases of the cardiovascular system are also the most frequent cause of hospitalization in our country, accounting for 14.2 percent of total hospitalizations.
“23.5 percent of Italian pharmaceutical spending is on drugs for the cardiovascular system.”
Well, let’s assume that we have been good at curing a patient from an acute cardiovascular event: we need to keep in mind that those who survive an acute event become chronically ill in most cases, with obvious changes in their quality of life, and significant economic costs to society (23.5 percent of Italian pharmaceutical spending is allocated to drugs for the cardiovascular system).
Ischemic heart disease is a multifactorial disease where familiarity, diabetes, hypertension, overweight/obesity, dyslipidemia, cigarette smoking, and sedentary lifestyle are the main risk factors, and prevention is one of the most important tools to combat it. To combat cardiovascular disease, correct lifestyles should be encouraged in the population from a young age so that a favorable risk profile is maintained throughout life.
The importance of prevention and research
Identifying individuals at increased cardiovascular risk suggests to the physician to better investigate probable cardiovascular disease, also facilitating treatment choices.
Another way to prevent cardiovascular disease deaths is, of course, also to prevent and adequately treat relapsing cardiovascular disease.
The goal is to prevent acute events, limit complications in those who have already suffered an event, slow the chronicization process, and promote the recovery of the cardiac patient.
At present, modern treatment strategies are most often effective weapons in curing a cardiovascular event; research is currently aimed at limiting the invasiveness of therapies to a greater extent and in being able to identify early those at greater risk of heart attacks or strokes.
The Fondazione was born precisely out of the need not to be satisfied with what has been done so far but to expand research in order to prevent the occurrence of acute events and to improve the quality of life of heart disease patients with better follow-up management, with the identification of patients at high risk of short- or long-term mortality, and by fostering the development of new cutting-edge treatments.
Everything, in short, revolves around Research. The one done right