Manuel López: «Heart failure is the pathology with more income»

Manuel López Pérez (Lugo, 1984) is a cardiologist at the Ferrol University Complex (Chuf) and the person in charge of teaching the first healthy talk organized by the voice and the health area in As Pontes with the collaboration of the City Council.It will be next Wednesday at the Alvi Auditorium (at 8:30 p.m.) and will be dedicated to heart failure.

-The title of the talk, "heart failure, its true importance", suggests that this ailment is not taken seriously?

-People know what diabetes is, hypertension, but for many people heart failure is still something that does not sound to them.And it is a serious illness, but it is still the great unknown of heart disease.We could say that it is an epidemic, since, for example, it is the medical pathology that causes more income in hospitals, that is, those that have nothing to do with surgeries.And it is the first cause of hospitalization in over 65 years.

-Why is it so unknown?

-I think we have managed to treat infarctions, diabetes and other ailments well, but it is that heart failure rather than a disease itself is the final path of many others that affect the heart and thanks to the fact that we have managed to improve treatmentsWe find that these patients reach this point.

-Are you always associated with other diseases or unhealthy lifestyle habits?

-Evidently, the most frequent cause of insufficiency in Spain is the problems of the arteries of the heart and that is why a balanced diet, avoiding obesity and a healthy life, in general, greatly reduces the possibilities of suffering from heart failure.Tension, alcohol or chemotherapeutic drugs are other factors that can develop it.

-Chemotherapy?

-Yes, because they are strong and very powerful drugs, since they try to eliminate those malignant cells and some of these treatments can produce toxicity over the heart, so patients who receive chemotherapeutic treatments we follow them preventively from cardiology.

-How is the evolution of patients?

-The insufficiency could start with a heart attack that leaves a scar in the heart, which in the long term causes the heart to dilate and lose strength, which are two of the characteristics of this disease.The person can spend a lot of time without having any symptoms, but when the former are manifested they are fatigue and fluid retention.We can treat it and the message we must always have to be positive, because although the disease is serious and the long -term forecast is ominous, it is true that we already have medical ways to slow down this progression and can even improve the damaged heart.

-Terators that involve transplants ...

-Habitually patients are treated with pills and it is very important that the patient is strict in their own care, because they can detect decompensations or win a few kilos because they are retaining liquids and that helps us to carry the disease.Initially the treatment is usually a doctor, with pills and special follow -up.Ferrol has a heart failure monitoring unit.Once these initial phases are overcome and the patient is still bad, the final resource can be the transplant.

-And the artificial heart, like the one he wears, Salvador Sobral, the winner of Eurovision?

-Yes, it is an alternative.

-When one or the other is used?

- It depends on the patient's profile, which is very varied.The transplant is the most important resource of health, but the problem is that there are less and less donors and patients are increasing and support the intervention worse.It is that they reach the disease in very advanced ages.The reality is that there are no organs for all patients who need them and that is why they ariseNew devices that serve contraindicated patients for transplantation or expect one.In fact, many can take it throughout life, it is a small backpack, which carries bombs that function like the heart.