Clinical Pharmacist Intervention in Management of Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases are the disorders of the cardiovascular system which include coronary heart disease, hypertension, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, rheumatic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease. The development of cardiovascular diseases is associated with complex risk factors such as smoking, alcohol, obesity, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, stress, family history of cardiovascular disease; hypertension and diabetes mellitus can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease complications. Recent health care statistics revealed that cardiovascular diseases are causing 17.3 million deaths every year and this count will extends 23.6 million by the end of 2030. Clinical pharmacy practice is one of the greatest professions among other health care disciplines in the hospital practice. The clinical pharmacist has a vital role in enhancing the care of patients through providing primary care services such as diet counseling, disease counseling, lifestyle modification counseling, medication counseling which includes uses, indications, warnings, precautions, side effects, dose, time of intake of medications, risk factors identification, risk screening, drug related problems reporting, awareness on pharmacovigilance, conducting awareness programmes on cardiovascular disease prevention, control of lipid, glycemic levels, blood pressure, stress management, weight control, physical exercise, low salt intake, cessation of smoking, alcohol and early implementation of clinical pharmacist services in the hospitals could lower the progression of cardiovascular disease risk incidences.

Keywords: Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Pharmacy Practice, Coronary Heart Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension.