KARACHI, Nov 13: Every year about 100,000 people from suffer heart attacks in Pakistan. Of this number approximately 33,000 patients die within the first year.

This was stated by Prof Hamid Shafqat, the President of the Pakistan Cardiac Society, at a press conference on Thursday evening. Prof Abdus Samad, General Secretary of the society, was present on the occasion as were several other heart specialists.

He said for the past several years cardiologists and physicians had been expressing their concern over the alarming rise in the prevalence of heart disease. In his opinion the increase was due to bad eating habits combined with lack of physical exercise.

It was also widely recognized that people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and those who smoke were at a high risk, he said. Early steps to control the cited risk factors could minimize the chances of heart attack.

Results from a recent clinical study, involving 15,000 people from the United States, Europe and rest of the world, were also announced on the occasion. The clinical trial had shown that the people who had survived a heart attack lived longer if they used a certain line of medicine.

Among those who spoke on the occasion were: Prof Ejaz A. Vohra, Prof Mansoor Ahmed and Dr Syed Imran Ahmed.