City cardiologist invited to speak at prestigious TCT conference
Dr. R K Jaswal, DM Cardiology, Director Cardiology, Fortis Hospital Mohali, is the only doctor from the region who has been invited to speak at the prestigious Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2019 scientific symposium at San Francisco, CA, USA from September 24th to 29th in the category of most challenging cases for a duration of 90 minutes (9:15 AM to 10:45 AM on 28th September 2018)
Every year, TCT features major medical research breakthroughs and highlights the latest data on the most innovative treatments that will impact patient care and how physicians treat heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world. The studies selected examine the safety and effectiveness of minimally invasive techniques, pharmaceuticals, technologies, and devices that demonstrate potential to treat or prevent cardiovascular disease.
This is the most important conference in Interventional cardiology, where all top operators including members of American College of Cardiology (ACC) & European Society of Cardiology (ESC) also participate. The selection criteria for complex cases is very stringent and only the cases which have utilized path breaking technology to save the patient from life threatening clinical illness are accepted for presentation.
Dr. Jaswal would be speaking about a particular case utilized technique of Rotablation in highly calcified arteries in a 80 years old diabetic patient, who was critically ill due to dissection of the main artery of the heart. The patient had a Blood Pressure of only 60 mmHg (Cardiogenic shock) along with florid pulmonary oedema with kidney disease and was on advanced life support. Entire coronary arterial tree was reconstructed with 4 stents after modifying the stony hard calcified arteries with rotablation. Rotablator is a diamond studded bur which rotates between 1 Lac 40 thousand to 2 Lac RPM and like a drill creates modification of the calcium in the arteries. Such calcified arteries never respond to routine ballooning and stenting. When the calcium is present throughout length of the artery, as was the case here, even CABG (Bypass Surgery) has poor results.
City cardiologist invited to speak at prestigious TCT conference
Very few cardiologists are well trained to perform rotablation of coronary arteries. Majority of these Rotablation procedures are done in a relatively stable patient as the technology itself carries higher risk of complications, despite the fact that in such situations this is the only treatment modality available. In this particular case the technique was to be used in a critically ill patient with a very low Blood Pressure and the patient was on advanced life support already. The patient however recovered and has been doing exceedingly well for the last three years. His stress test is also normal and he is walking 4-5 km at a stretch without any discomfort
