Newswise — A diverse group of international cardiologists and cardiovascular researchers, including P. K. Shah, M.D., Director of Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, has sent a formal request to former President Bill Clinton inviting him to help in the campaign for heart attack eradication. In an open letter to Clinton spearheaded by the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack (AEHA), the heart attack prevention experts say his visible involvement can save many lives by building upon the positive effects of the discovery of his heart disease and subsequent prevention of heart attack.
"By lending your support to our movement, you have the opportunity to influence millions of people worldwide and, potentially, save more lives than have been lost in all the wars in the past century," the letter said. In addition to Dr. Shah, Drs. Harvey Hecht and Morteza Naghavi signed it, on behalf of AEHA and the SHAPE Task Force, which is made up of leading cardiologists from around the world. The group is advocating the National SHAPE (Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education) Program, a new approach to help physicians identify "the vulnerable patient" such as Former President Clinton who tend to be susceptible to a heart attack.
According to Dr. Shah, "The Former President's case has significantly increased awareness of the limitations of traditional medical practice for prevention of heart attacks. As a result, countless men and women have sought new tests, a phenomenon called 'Clinton Syndrome.'"
"The good news is that there is growing understanding that current guidelines used to detect those susceptible to heart attacks fail in identifying many high-risk individuals and we hope to build upon that," said Dr. Morteza Naghavi, founder and president of AEHA. "The bad news is that the public has a short attention span and, without the sustained presence of a highly visible advocate to champion early detection of hidden heart disease, complacency will return."
AEHA is hopeful that Former President Clinton will agree to join the campaign for its National SHAPE Program. Modeled after successful screening efforts in the cancer care arena, the SHAPE initiative encourages all men 45 and older and women 55 and older to undergo a comprehensive vascular structure and function assessment test.
If Clinton had undergone such a screening, it is almost certain that his disease would have been discovered and treated without the need for a rush open heart surgery. President Clinton was fortunate to survive; however every year a large group of unfortunate men and women die within one hour after the onset of symptoms.
"With the president's help, we are confident that the medical establishment will more quickly adopt necessary changes to implement mass screening to save lives" said Harvey Hecht, M.D. "Once we establish a new standard medical practice for heart attack prevention and the costs of screening procedures comes down, we can convince insurance programs and Medicare of the need to cover screening procedures."
In addition to advocating the new screening strategy for early detection of the vulnerable patients, AEHA is promoting a new line of research for development of vaccination and immune modulation strategies for prevention and treatment of fat build-up (atherosclerotic plaque) in the arteries . In concept, a vaccination strategy would target both children and adults and would have the potential to eliminate the substrate for future heart attack. The initiative follows recent revolutionary discoveries that revealed atherosclerosis as an immune disease. One such vaccine strategy is currently being developed jointly in the laboratories of Dr. Shah in Los Angeles and Dr. Jan Nilsson in Sweden.
The organization is holding two satellite symposia in conjunction with the upcoming annual meeting of the American Heart Association on November 6 and 7, 2004. The SHAPE guidelines and the AEHA Vaccine for Atherosclerosis Initiative will be discussed by world experts in clinical cardiology and cardiovascular basic scientists.
"This collaborative effort is promising and we are excited about the Vaccine Discussion Forum," said Dr. Naghavi. "We owe it to pioneering scientists such a Goran Hanson, P.K. Shah, Wulf Palinski, Joseph Witztum, George Wick, Quing Bo Xu, Peter Libby and others whose revolutionary research has opened our way to new opportunities for combating the number one killer."
The AEHA is determined to pursue the Atherosclerosis Vaccine Initiative by launching fundraising campaigns to gain philanthropic and federal support for the vaccine research.
Originated from the Texas Medical Center in Houston, the AEHA is a non-profit organization that promotes education and research related to mechanism, prevention, detection and treatment of heart attacks. The organization is committed to raising public awareness and research funding to support new developments that can lead to eradication of heart attack. The AEHA's mission is to eradicate heart attacks before the end of the century. Additional information is available on the organization's Web site at www.vp.org and www.AEHA.org.
A Magnet Nursing designated facility, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, it has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities and was recently fully accredited by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP). Additional information is available at http://www.cedars-sinai.org.
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