Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) uses High Altitude Research to cure thrombosis

Pune: Research has always been a big part of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) where the students as well as the doctors work together on research programmes that help discovering new methods to tackle the medical problems faced by the armed forces. After successfully launching the DNA profiling and study of stem cell, AFMC’s dean, Dr. Velu Nair informed on 18th June (Wednesday) that their High Altitude research project will be complete in the next 6 to 10 months.

“It becomes a grave concern when 25-26-year-old fully fit men who are stationed at a glacier come back after few months to find out they have a blood clot in their vein (Thrombosis.)” said Dr Velu Nair who informed that the AFMC’s research team is in the last stage of the research.
The project started two and half years ago as AFMC took 750 troops from Damana, Jammu then taking them to various stages of acclimatization up to the high altitude. “We have been taking the troops to Ladakh every quarterly and have completed 6-7 trips already. The troops stay there for 3 months then we check then physically and do blood tests in lab which tells us how the environment affects the blood at various stages.”
Through this study, the AFMC will also get a better idea about what happens to troops after 12-15 months of getting Thrombosis. “We follow the medical situation of the troop to see how long it will take to get revert back to normal. This will help us decide how time it will take to put the regiment back in the glacier. We need to compensate the troop as his condition is caused by the environment he was in. Hence, this one of a kind study will also help others to know about re-induction and medical compensation.”