In a major breakthrough in cardiac treatment, the main aortic valve can now be replaced without surgery and in a few months the technology will be available in India.
This will be particularly beneficial for patients for whom surgery is risky. Four per cent of the population suffers from narrowing of the aortic valve.
By 2015, there would be 50 million people in India with cardiac disease. Heart ailments were taking epidemic proportions in the country, said senior cardiologists from India and abroad, who are here to attend an advanced course in clinical cardiology, a collaboration of Yashoda Hospital and Cleveland Clinic, US. Dr Samir Kapadia from Cleveland Clinic said there had been significant advancement in cardiac technology.
While mitral valve repair without surgery is in its clinical trial stage, replacement of the aortic valve without surgery has started in the United States and in the next six months the technology will be available in India. “This transcather aortic valve replacement scores over conventional methods as older patients do not have to withstand the risk of surgical intervention,” said the senior cardiologist and added, “In such patients, degeneration of the valve takes place due to calcium deposits. So, the artova valve, crimped on a balloon, is placed at the entrance of the heart, through tubes connected to the groin.” he said.
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Pune: body of missing WWii veteran found
ATEEQ SHAIKH
Mumbai, Feb. 19
The body of an 89-year-old war veteran who fought in the World War II, Group Captain C.G.I. Philip was found in an open plot opposite his Pune residence. His body dumped on the barren plot after he went missing for 36 hours.
“On the morning of February 13, he left from home to withdraw money. As he was physically fit he always chose to walk wherever he used to go. Even on that day he walked around four km to the nearest bank and withdrew `3,000,” said Air Marshal (retd.) S. Ramdas, a close friend of Group Captain C.G.I. Philip.
It is unclear where he went or whom he met after that. According to Air Marshal Ramdas, the war hero did not have any enemies and was very popular in the area and was known to be a thorough gentleman.
For next 36 hours, there was no sign of Group Captain Philip despite the family and near and dear ones looking for him, wherever they could. It was only on February 15 at 2.30 am, the guards of a showroom were alerted by stray dogs who were constantly barking. One of the security guards climbed the six-foot boundary wall and found a dead body. “What is questionable and raises suspicion is that the money that he withdrew and his passbook was there in his pocket,” pointed out Air Marshal Ramdas.