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Written By: Agencies | Updated : April 22, 2015 5:06 PM IST
Imagine a world where the exact cardiovascular disease a person's likely to suffer from can be predicted in advance allowing the person to make the necessary lifestyle modifications to prevent the disease.
While this sounds like the plot of a movie, a team of docs in Mangalore have actually created a Minority Reportesque process called the Cardiac Calcium Scan which can predict the possibility of a block 10 years in advance! This process alleviates stenting in advance and a patient can undergo simple treatment like preventive medicine, diet alteration, lifestyle changes and exercise regimen,' said Dr Mukund, director of the Mangalore Heart Scan Foundation.
'As the title of the process suggests, it takes accurate measures of the calcification and cholesterol deposits on the artery walls The equipment, which comes as an attachment to the standard angiography, shows even the anterior parts of arteries, which can give us values that estimated the time of the onset of cardiac blocks. This is the first equipment available to the medical fraternity that shows the anterior parts of arteries, which works like a boon, both to the cardiologists and the patients,' he said.
Though earlier versions of the equipments are available in the country, the one developed in Mangalore uses first generation equipment to image the depths of human heart. (Read: What to expect during an angiography?)
Read more about causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.
What is angioplasty?
Angioplasty is the term used for mechanically widening narrowed or obstructed arteries. It is not a surgery. Coronary angioplasty is a procedure used to open narrow or blocked coronary (heart) arteries to restore blood flow to the heart muscle. A thin, flexible catheter (tube) with a balloon at its tip is passed through a blood vessel to the affected artery. Once in place, the balloon is inflated which compresses the plaque against the artery wall. Angioplasty can be done with or without a small wire-mesh tube called stent. (Angioplasty - all you need to know)
What is bypass surgery?
A bypass surgery is a major operation in which a healthy blood vessel is used to form a bypass or another route for the heart to pump blood to the other body parts to make up for a blockage in a coronary (heart artery). This new blood vessel is called a graft and the proper name for the procedure is 'coronary artery bypass graft surgery'. It's one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures. (Life doesn't end after bypass surgery)
With inputs from DNA
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