The 8th annual conference of the Cardiological Society of India, AP Chapter, started at Hotel Viceroy, in Hyderabad, on Saturday. About 250 delegates from all over Andhra Pradesh are attending the two-day conference.
The conference will debate on various recent advances in coronary artery disease management, highlighting the importance of newer devices like Drug Eluting Stents, or drug coated stents, in the management of coronary blocks. Eminent surgeons like Dr K M Cherian from Madras Mission Hospital, Dr Nakul Sinha from SGPGIMS, Lucknow, and Dr P Kerkar from KEM Hospital, Mumbai, will enlighten the delegates in recent advances in cardiology.
The issues involving day-to-day management of cardiac patients, prevention of heart attack and risk factors like DM, hypertension and smoking will be discussed at the conference. The results of studies conducted in these fields will help give a better quality of life to cardiac patients, preventing the risk of the increased 'epidemic' of coronary artery disease, according to Dr Sampat Kumar, Secretary, APCSI.
He said the experience with indigenously produced drug-coated stents would be the main topic of discussion at the two-day conference. At present, only one manufacturer, based in Surat, is making the drug-eluting stents, a relatively new device for the management of coronary artery disease. Now CARE-Polymed, a subsidiary of CARE Hospitals, has begun pre-clinical trials for making these stents which have proved effective in preventing Restonosis, a condition that results in blockage of the blood vessel even after the insertion of a normal stent like the Kalam-Raju stent which was introduced by the same hospital in association with President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. An imported drug-coated stent costs anywhere between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1,40,000 against Rs 20,000 and Rs 50, 000 for normal stents, including the insertion charges. The drug-coated stent is used after medically assessing the risk of patients developing Restonosis.
At the morning session papers were presented by Dr Soma Raju, Managing Director, CARE Hospital ( primary angioplasty), Dr V Dayasagar Rao (Acute MI -Pharmacological management), Dr P Raghava Rao (PTCA+ Stent), Dr Sudhir Naik, MediCiti Hospitals and Dr D Prasad Reddy (Medical Management and Interventions respectively on CAD-Chronic Stable Angina Pectoris), Dr P Kerkar (Congenital Catheter Interventions) and Dr C Raghu (Transradial Approach -Renewed Enthusiasm).