Landmark in coronary care

Briefing newspersons recently, Dr Gandhi said the procedure of implanting radioactive stents in patients was undertaken from July 26 this year, in close collaboration with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

While bypass surgery, by which arterial blocks are bypassed by venous or arterial grafts, became a popular procedure, angioplasty is another method developed almost two decades ago in Switzerland to open the blocks by means of a balloon. However, by this method, in 30 to 50 per cent of the cases, the blocks returned within six months. To combat this problem of restenosis, the implantation of radioactive stents is seen as one of the most “promising development”, said Dr Gandhi.

Till now, only about 30 patients have received such implants in the USA.“The radioactivity is to the order of one micro curie per cm of stent which usually measures three-four cm, and it completely disappears over a period of two months,” he informed. “The first five patients have been closely monitored and have done extremely well.”

Dr Vivek Mehan, Interventional Cardiologist, and Dr Nagaraj Huilgol, Radiation Oncologist of the Isotope Division of the BARC, developed the technology and deposited Phosphorous-32 radioactivity on the stent. The present procedure with radioactive stent could give a permanent solution sans side effects to patients who follow a strict diet and precautionary methods prescribed by doctors, claimed Dr Gandhi.