Indian, Japanese docs tie up to heal your heart faster

Here's some good news for your heart. Foreign help is at hand to deal with the complex issue of heart blockages.

Indian cardiologists along with their Japanese counterparts have formed a unique association which will promote angioplasty for a particular kind of heart block that is old and calcified. Usually, Indian cardiologists rarely opt for angioplasty to treat these kind of blocks. Japanese cardiologists, who are supposed to be the best when it comes to such angioplasties, will train Indian doctors.

The first conference was held in Mumbai this weekend in which experts conducted a live chronic total occlusion (CTO) angioplasty. The conference was attended by nearly 800 Indian cardiologists.

The Indo-Japanese CTO club will bring together masters in the field of CTO from Japan. The club will conduct live surgeries to train Indian cardiologists. The club, presently, has 16 members, including eight Japanese cardiologists.

Dr AV Ganesh Kumar, interventional cardiologist at LH Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, who is one of those behind the club’s formation, said, “CTO is an old and hard calcified block that most Indian cardiologists fear to touch. Only 10-20% of interventional cardiologists across India perform CTO angioplasties because of the complexities involved. Japanese cardiologists have mastered the art of performing angioplasty on such blocks and we plan to use their expertise in educating our cardiologists.”

“A block in an artery if not removed within three months by angioplasty becomes hard, fibrotic and calcified. This is then called a CTO. As it turns hard, it becomes difficult to open the block and requires hard wires for the job. It needs specialised skill as the hard wire can tear the artery and bring in further complications. It is this fear in doctors which keeps many away from conducting such an angioplasty,” Kumar explained.

According to him, such patients are either left on medical management or, depending on the case, referred for a bypass surgery. “Generally, doctors in India go for bypass if there are more than one CTOs or if there is one CTO with other blockages. A patient who has one CTO is mostly put on medical management,” Kumar added.