Bengaluru: Many throng Jayadeva hospital OPD to check heart health

BENGALURU: Close on the heels of Sandalwood star Puneeth Rajkumar’s death, there is a sharp rise in the number of youngsters seeking basic cardiac medical tests at the government-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research (SJICSR) here.
The hospital had 1,600 people visiting its OPD on Monday, against a normal day’s turnout of 1,200.
According to Dr CN Manjunath, director, SJICSR, healthy individuals seeking tests and check-ups over the last three days seems to have been triggered by Puneeth’s death.
While the numbers at the OPD started seeing a rise on October 30 itself, there was huge rush on Monday. “These are panic visits and knee-jerk reactions. It’s not enough if such an evaluation is done once. One has to be cautious. Following Puneeth’s death, there is a 20-25% increase in OPD visits,” said Dr Manjunath.
Dr Manjunath suggested people with a strong family history of heart ailments and multiple risk factors like smoking and diabetes go for a CT-Coronary angiogram, an imaging test that looks at the arteries that supply blood to the heart. “It can indicate cholesterol and calcium deposits in the artery, if any. If there is calcium deposition in the artery, it means that the cardiac disease has begun. However, CT-Coronary angiogram should not be repeated annually as it is a source of radiation,” he said, adding that it is reserved only for those who have multiple risk factors and are considered highrisk and vulnerable.
Incidentally, 275 people sought master health check-ups that includes all blood investigations and treadmill tests at the hospital on Monday. The hospital usually sees nearly 175 persons seeking master health check-ups daily.
The hospital’s staff also said that because of huge crowd, Covid-appropriate behaviour too went for a toss. A similar trend was seen in Mysuru and Kalaburagi units of the hospital too. The Mysuru OPD had 1,000 people seeking consultations on Monday, as against the usual 600-700.
While private hospitals did not seen such huge crowds, doctors at Manipal Hospitals admitted that they did come across specific cases of healthy individuals wanting to get checked to ensure they were fine. Dr Ranjan Shetty, interventional cardiologist, Manipal Hospitals, said 15 youngsters from the age group 20-40 years appeared slightly panicky and underwent tests like CT-Coronary angiogram. “It is good to be aware of health status, but it has to be sustained and not be a reaction to one incident. It is important to lead a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr Shetty.
“For a week, youngsters will rush in and then they forget it all,” he said, adding that a similar trend was seen when actor Sidharth Shukla died in September at a young age following heart attack. No such significant rise was seen in people seeking cardiac consultations at Narayana Health, the hospital said.