Portuguese Health Minister Adalberto Campos Fernandes, the President of the Portuguese Cardiology Society Miguel Mendes, the head of the European Cardiology Society Fausto Pinto, and Professor Valentin Fuster, of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York, were among those present at the congress.
Alain Carpentier, regarded as ‘the father’ of many innovations in cardiology, was also due to attend the event.
It is held every year and intended to “be the centre of scientific discussion for all doctors involved in the following of cardiovascular patients.”
Health Minister Adalberto Campos Fernandes highlighted the work of specialists in the field, recalling how in 2013 the death rate for brain and cardiovascular diseases fell to its lowest ever level, continuing a three-year downwards trend.
However, the Minster stressed, such diseases are still the number one cause of death among Portuguese aged under 70 and reiterated there is still a lot of work to be done with regards to preventing, educating and raising awareness among the population.
During the congress it was also revealed that one in every ten people over the age of 65 in Portugal has a heart arrhythmia, but over a third of those affected are unaware of it and the large majority is improperly medicated.
Those were the findings of a new study named the ‘System of AF evaluation In Real world Ambulatory patients’, which traced the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation and Cardiovascular Risk among the Portuguese.
Research in Portugal was carried out between 2014 and 2015 and involved 7,500 Portuguese over the age of 65.