The conference was held for the Ninth consecutive year , Confirming that many patients suffer from Hypertension without being aware of it
The Cardiology Department in King Abdulaziz Hospital, Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs, in collaboration with the Academic Affairs held the ninth annual Cardiovascular Diseases Conference, with the participation of a number of consultants, specialists and health providers. The Regional Executive Director of the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs in the Eastern Region, Dr. Ahmad Al Arfaj mentioned that: "This annual conference attracts a lot of attention from the participants, who are keen to seek accurate medical information in this regard".
He said: "This activity completes a series of continuous programs, activities and events organized by the MNG-HA, that is keen on developing the medical services to achieve the highest levels of healthcare standards”.
In addition, Dr. Alarfaj explained that: "The importance of such conference lies in raising the community’s awareness levels in regards to heart disease prevention, which is the first cause of death in the world, and the third in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after traffic accidents and aging. Besides, last year’s conference focused on hypertension and has achieved its desired objectives ".
Head of Cardiology Department and Conference President at King Abdulaziz Hospital, Dr. Anwar Gilani said that: "the conference has achieved the desired goals and strategies, and attracted experienced and well known speakers in heart diseases field”.
He stated that "the conference covered the latest medical studies in this field, addressed papers presented by consultants from King Abdulaziz Hospital, King Fahd Medical Complex and from Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Alahsa, and discussed specialized research papers for awareness on hypertension at local and international levels."
Moreover, Dr. Gilani pointed out that: "in 2011, a medical study showed that 50% of hypertension diagnosed patients did not know that they had the disease, which encouraged us to do a study on educating hypertension patients through randomly measuring their blood pressure, as well as the hospital staff and the conference participants.. Consequently, We discovered that more than 45% were Hypertension patients without being aware of their condition”.
He added: "the conference was keen on informing health providers with the importance of treating hypertension and preventing its complications, which can lead to kidney failure, heart attacks or strokes". Last but not least, he confirmed that: " this conference was launched for the ninth consecutive year as it has met its objectives locally targeting health providers to stay up to date torecent medical knowledge in this field".