Profile of patients presenting to Addis Cardiac Hospital, Addis ababa, Ethiopia, from May 2007 to December 2011

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular disease, principally, ischemic heart disease and stroke, constitute the leading cause of global mortality, accounting for 422.2 million cases of cardiovascular disease and 17.92 million deaths worldwide in 2015. In Ethiopia, no countrywide studies done on cardiovascular disease, except for some hospital-based studies and a few community based research showing the problem as an important cause of morbidity and mortality.

Method: This is a facility-based study at the first private cardiac specialized hospital in Ethiopia. Systematic sampling was applied to select the study subjects through retrieval of every 10th medical record and data were exported to STATA version 14 software for cleaning and analysis. Frequency distribution of the outcome variables, risk factors, clinical presentations and treatment categories were presented.

Results: The most frequent age range at presentation was 21 to 30 years. The most frequent presenting complaints are dyspnea and/or orthopnea occurring in 1282 (41.44%) followed by fatigue in 1122 (36.26%) and chest pain in 843 (27.25%). The two most frequent risk factors of cardiovascular disease are hypertension and dyslipidemia present in 1040 (33.61 %) and 831 (26.86%) patients respectively followed by diabetes in 508 (16.42%). Hypertension with hypertensive heart disease accounts for 1040 (49.31%) followed by ischemic heart disease in 219 (10.38 %) and cardiomyopathy in133 (6.31%) patients.

Conclusion: Hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and overweight/obesity are important risk factors of cardiovascular disease among subjects. The use of guideline recommended primary and secondary prevention medications in primary care settings was very low.