Students of the Dr Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD) at the Karachi University (KU) have developed a prototype model of a heart attack detection device.
This newly developed system is a smart kit which consists of a circuit that continuously monitors the heart rate of the user, a senior official of the institution said here on Tuesday. Patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) require urgent medical treatment upon having a severe or mild heart attack.
UoK International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) Director Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, while delivering a lecture held at the ICCBS, said that the research team of Dr Shabana Usman Simjee developed this device.
The research team comprised of Saba Majeed, Mehwish Subhan, Mehwish Tanveer, Aisha Aziz, Saad Ahmed Shaikh, Maha Shahid, Maryam Askani and Kanwal Iftikhar.
Prof Iqbal Choudhary said that according to WHO data published in May 2014, deaths due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Pakistan reached 111,367 or 9.87 percent of total deaths.
“WHO estimates that the age-adjusted death rate is 110.65 per 100,000 of the population,” he said.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the conventional technique used to detect heart attacks or CVD. For this procedure, patients need to reach the hospital urgently. The delay in the start of the treatment can aggravate the condition of the patient.
“A quick system for detecting heart attacks is therefore needed,” he added. “When the heart rate of the user crosses a certain limit, a nearby smartphone is notified, and an application installed in the smartphone notifies people identified by the user, as well as an ambulance service.”