The need for open surgery has been minimised with invasive methods. The advent of interventional radiology and imaging has made so many procedures possible which one could not imagine some 10 to 20 years ago. This was stated by Dr G Shyam Sunder, Vice-Chancellor, NTR University of Health Sciences, who was the chief guest at the 5th joint Annual Conference of Indian Society of Vascular Interventional Radiology and Indian Society of Neuro Radiology at Taj Krishna on Thursday night.

Describing the recent technological advances as a boon for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, Prof. Shyam Sunder said in the fifties and the sixties the doctors had to depend only on X-ray tests. Now there were so many gadgets for diagnostic purposes. With these gadgets, the doctors were able to see the functioning of every organ and conduct surgeries by using patient-friendly invasive methods, he said.

Dr T Mandapal, head of the Dept of Radiology, MNJ Institute of Oncology and chairman of the Organising Committee, said in the practice of medicine one should always seek new and better ways to solve clinical problems. Interventional Radiology was a superb example of this quest. In the past one decade there were tremendous technological advances in the field of Interventional Radiology by developing sophisticated gadgets like micro catheters, balloons, drug coated stents, embolic materials, coils and thrombolytic drugs.

There was also an accelerated growth and expansion in the field of neuro radiology and imaging like multislice CT, high field strength magnets, functional MRI/Spectroscopy, high resolution real time 3D/4D US. With the recent advances in hardware and software, hybrid CT/PET Scans were developed to study the anatomical details with excellent spatial resolution and metabolism of the cells at molecular level –molecular imaging.

Dr Kakarla Subba Rao, Director, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), said now the role of a radiologist was equally important as that of a surgeon. He called for a change in the attitude of the radiologists realizing the heavy responsibility thrust upon them with the discovery of new gadgets and machines. He said newer imaging modalities had revolutionized the treatment modalities. The young and upcoming doctors should learn the latest developments in Imaging.

According to a press release about the conference, Vascular and Interventional Radiology is a challenging offshoot of radiology dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, While Vascular Radiology deals with diagnosis of diseases of the blood vessels, Interventional Radiology deals with diagnosis and treatment by gaining access into the blood vessels or into the organ or structure of interest. From the simplest of procedures such as biopsy, drainage of pus collection to angiograms and treatment procedures such as dilation of narrowed blood vessels (angioplasty and stent implantation), deliberate occlusion of bleed in vessels (embolisation) etc. fall within its purview.

With the evolution of technology, rapid advances have taken place in this field. Today it is possible to dilate not only the narrowed vessels in the neck of extremities, but also in the brain. Focal swelling in the blood vessels of the brain (aneurysm), which is frequently the cause for bleeding, can be alternatively treated by packing with blocompatible coils as an alternative to surgery. Patients with brain stroke (paralysis), presenting with a window period, can be treated by clot lysing substances injected through fine micro catheters introduced into the finer vessels of the brain. Focal dilation in the large arteries can likewise be isolated from the circulation by deploying covered stents (stent grafts).

Symposia, guest lectures, panel discussions, workshops and live presentations would form part of the four-day conference which was being attended by 300 delegates, a couple of the from abroad. Workshops with live case demonstrations are planned in neuro and non-neuro procedures like GDC coiling of intra-cranial aneurysms, angioplasties and stenting of various vessels, hepato-biliary interventions like TIPS, tumour ablations, gynaec interventions like uterine fibroid embolisation and fallopian tube recanalisation.