First Angioplasty at Shija Heart Beat
July 13, 2013

Santosh Shekhar *

A Press Conference was held at the Auditorium, Shija Hospitals and Research Institute, Langol regarding the successful conduct of Angioplasty for the first time at Shija Heart Beat on 12th July 2013.

Mr. L. Birbal. 60 years old male patient from Wangjing, Thoubal with no history of hypertension or diabetes mellitus presented to our hospital with ongoing chest pain. He was evaluated by our team of expert doctors and was diagnosed as a case of "ACUTE HEART ATTACK". There are two kinds of heart attack: STEMI where one of the three arteries of heart get completely blocked leading to extensive damage to heart and which usually requires administration of heart "clot busters"; the other being NSTEMI : where usually there is less than total occlusion . Our patient belonged to the second group; hence he was kept in ICCU and was managed with medications, and not the clot busters.

His angiography was done at Shija Heart Beat, Shija Hospitals and blockage of 80% was detected in one of his arteries. The procedure was done by a team of doctors lead by Dr. Arvind Kumar, Interventional Cardiologist from MEDICA Superspecialty Hospital, Kolkata along with doctors of Shija Hospitals. We planned to do minimal invasive method to open the blockage with use of specialized wires, balloons and metallic coil like structure which we call "stents". This method is called "angioplasty". It is not an operation, so patient can eat and do other activities as early as 1hour after the procedure, and can be discharged from hospital in 24 to 48 hours. The patients Angioplasty was done on 12th July 2013 and the patient is recovering well.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is number one killer worldwide and India and Manipur can be no exception. Medical Science has evolved a lot and there is effective treatment available for most of the CVD. But still out of ignorance patients do not reach appropriately trained doctors quality centres for evaluation and treatment. Worldwide in substantial number of patient’s symptom of acute heart attack is interpreted as “gas and acidity related" and hence they seek appropriate medical help at a very late state or not at all and succumb to disease.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease has two common cardiac manifestations. One is "chronic stable angina" which in common terms referred simply as angina . In this a patient develops pain/heaviness/compression/ uneasiness/burning in chest or anywhere in between jaw and belly, usually during exertion or sometimes after meals. Another is acute heart attack, in which a previously asymptomatic patient all of sudden develops these symptoms or in a previously known patient of stable angina develops symptoms whichis longer in duration and is not relieved by his usual medication. The symptom of acute heart attack usually occurs at rest.

During the Press Conference, Dr. Kh Palin, Managing Director of Shija Hospitals elaborated that the Shija Heart Beat has been established with the technical collaboration of MEDICA Superspecialty Hospital to ensure the world class heart/ cardiac facilities is available at the doorstep. Dr. Arvind Kumar, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Medica Superspecialty Hospital, Kolkata has been and will be rendering his services at the hospital on 2nd and 4th Thursday, Friday and Saturday of every month. Shija Hospitals today has the Cardiac OPD facilities everyday from 3PM to 6PM except Sunday. Shija Heart Beat today offers a wide range of facilities like Allura FC Cath Lab (Philips), ICCU, Angiogram, Angioplasty, Echo, TMT, Holter, Pacemaker implantation etc.

Angiography is regularly done at Shija Heart Beat and Angiography is the GOLD STANDARD test for diagnosing blockage in heart arteries. There are alternatives but at best they "suggest" presence or absence of blockages. Angiography is only safe and sure test to "confirm/reject" the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.