M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre, a unit of Narayana Health has now  second Catherization Laboratory (cath lab).

The second cath lab is dedicated to ‘Cardiac Emergencies’ activated through a 24-hour hotline which fast tracks the procedure of ‘angioplasty’. This will enable Narayana Heart Centre to maintain the international standard of ‘door-to-balloon’ time of around 90 minutes, thus accelerating the procedure timing. Every 5-minute delay results in 10 per cent loss of cardiac functioning and at least 10 per cent increase in the mortality, which would be circumvented by fast tracking in delivering definitive treatment to the patients with heart attack. As prompt diagnosis and right treatment within the specified timeframe is pertinent in case of acute heart attacks, the heart centre has experienced interventional cardiologists and support staffs who are trained to handle such multiple complex cases.

The  Centre is equipped to offer services for outpatients and inpatients. Services such as paediatric cardiology, ECG, TMT/stress test, dobutamine stress test, echo cardiography, holter monitoring and health checkup packages are being offered for outpatients. Intensive care services such as coronary care unit, cardiac catheterization, coronary angiography, coronary angioplasty, electrophysiology study, radio frequency ablation, pacemaker implantation, device closures are being offered for inpatients.

This state-of-the-art cath lab was inaugurated by Dr M R Jayaram, chairman, Gokula Education Foundation in the presence of Dr Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Health. Also present were Dr Naresh Shetty, president,  M S Ramaiah Memorial Hospital and Dr D V Guruprasad, IPS (R) CE, GEF (M).

Narayana Health is currently managing heart centres in MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Chinmaya Mission Hospital, St. Martha’s Hospital and Suguna Hospital in Bengaluru. These heart centres aim to provide quality cardiac care services and ensure faster accessibility during any heart emergency.

According to  Dr Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Health said,  that heart  attack tops the list in our country as a cause of sudden death, especially among the young, over other developed countries. Primary reasons behind this are either delay in recognizing the problem or transporting the patient to the nearest hospital, or lack of proper infrastructure and medical expertise. “With the launch of a second cath lab the effort is to address the treatment of cardiac emergencies in a more effective and timely manner.