MUMBAI, January 22: When nearly seven out of every hundred Indians complain of pulmonary heart diseases, it can be safely assumed that it has reached an epidemic proportion in the country. This was the challenge posed to nearly 600 doctors from all over the country and abroad at an international convention on `Newer Frontiers in Interventional and Clinical Cardiology' at the Bombay Hospital which commenced here today.Inaugurating the convention, vice-chancellor of University of Mumbai, Dr S S Deshmukh said that though the field of conventional medicine was breaking new frontiers, proper control over one's lifestyle could prevent any heart problem. She advocated a proper diet control coupled with exercises like yoga for patients.
While eminent cardiologist and the convention president, Dr B K Goyal said, "Nearly 10,000 coronary interventional procedures are done in India every year, half of which end up in stents being inserted in the arteries." He stressed the need for collection of more scientific data
on the occurance and the treatment of the diseases all over the country. However, with the advent of new technologies like laser surgery and introduction of cathelab, he felt that the spread of the disease could be checked.
Dr Patrick L Whitlow from Cleveland University, felt that even though repeated intervention had been the major failure of angioplasty, the procedure's success rate is on a rise due to introduction of new procedures like rotablation and stents with the help of intravascular ultrasound.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
