Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Chennai on May 14, organised a workshop on Imaging-Guided Precision Angioplasty using IVUS (Intravascular Ultrasound) and OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography).

The workshop was held in the presence of world renowned Cardiologist Dr Imad Sheiban, Director, Interventional Cardiology, Pederzoli Hospital, Italy at Apollo Speciality Hospitals Vanagaram. It was organized to create more awareness on the technical know-how of this technology which benefits the patients and help Cardiologists to perfect the procedure. Over 100 practitioners in the field of interventional cardiology attended the workshop, in which advance techniques in Interventional Cardiology, like imaging-guided precision angioplasty using IVUS and OCT were discussed.

Cardiovascular diseases amounts to a staggering 31 per cent of all deaths worldwide and it was estimated that 7.5 million people die each year in India. Moreover, 74 per cent of urban Indians were at risk of cardiovascular diseases. ''A heart attack can occur in a coronary artery that looks completely normal on angiography, but the latest advancements like intravascular ultrasound and OCT reveals the ultimate and precise cause of the incident'', a release from Apollo hospitals said.

''The blocked coronary artery may look completely normal using the standard two-dimensional "shadow" imaging angiography. But when the same segment is viewed cross-sectionally using IVUS, it gives a clear and precise imaging that helps the surgeon in performing the procedure with utmost accuracy'', it said. During the workshop Dr Imad Sheiban demonstrated some specialised techniques and said IVUS was better--by measuring the area of the blood vessel in cross section than its diameter the accuracy of the assessment increases significantly.

Image guided precision angioplasty was a procedure that transformed cardiac care and helped to improve patient care', he added.
Dr Anand Gnanaraj, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals said major adverse cardiac events (MACE) were significantly reduced by 64 per cent by IVUS guidance compared to angiography alone. ''In cardiovascular medicine, only a few  interventions/medications have shown to reduce clinical outcomes so dramatically as IVUS-guided percutaneous coronary intervention. Reducing cardiac events after a procedure to such magnitude is a very crucial milestone in interventional cardiology'', he added.