Health Corner

Annual Fundraiser
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system,which is made up of the brain,spinal cord,and optic nerves. It occurs without any known cause and is incurable,despite years of intensive research worldwide. The Multiple Sclerosis Society of India,affiliated to the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF),is the lone support group for people living with MS in the country. The organisation,which sustains through individual donations & corporate sponsorship of projects,offers free and/or subsidised services to help their patients and also actively raises awareness about the disease through pamphlets and medical seminars.The Pune chapter of MSSI has organised its Annual Fundraiser on August 1,through a musical evening titled ‘Guldasta’,featuring Pamela Singh. The event will be held from 6pm-8pm,at Nehru Memorial Hall.

Cardio workshop
A cardiac workshop on complex coronary procedures was conducted at Jehangir Hospital on July 21,2010,by reputed interventional cardiologists Dr. Imad Sheiban from Italy and Dr J S Dugal,director of Cathlab,Jehangir Hosptal. Among the procedures showcased was of a case rarely seen in workshops – Primary Angioplasty (PAMI),performed in case of an acute heart attack. The patient had a long block and the treatment of choice was a PAMI,wherein,instead of trying to bust the clot with an injection (thrombolysis),in which the chances of success are only 50%,a direct angioplasty is done,the block is stented and blood flow restored to normal. The second was a very complex case in which,three vessels of the patient were blocked and out of these,two of the arteries supplying blood to the heart were totally blocked. According to Dr Sheiban,to complicate matters further the third artery had a critical block at the Ostium (origin). The third case was of a chronic block inside a stent that had been previously deployed five years ago. This is called restenosis . The fourth patient had a long block in the left side artery. The final case was of an 85-year old female patient with a hard calcified block,totally occluding the artery. Surgery in such elderly patients is not a routine option. “We avoided surgery in this case by carrying out a highly specialized and technically difficult procedure called Rotablation,” informs Dr Dugal,who is an acknowledged expert in this technique and has earlier used it successfully in a 90-year old patient. Dr Dugal said that this workshop was among a series of such workshops that will be conducted every month at Jehangir Hospital for complicated heart problems,where surgery is the first option,but the patient is either unwilling or an unsuitable candidate for it because of poor heart function or old age. The next event is on the August 14,for patients with structural heart diseases like ASD/VSD.