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A matter of heart... and hope
MATTERS OF heart are always delicate. Now to remove some risk element from the core of all emotions medical technology has come up with Catheter Ablation or heart mapping. Though it is common in the West in India it made its presence only a few years back at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and now private hospitals are also taking interest in this expertise to regulate the abnormal heartbeat of the patients.
"Drugs aren't completely effective for everyone suffering from arrhythmias or abnormal heartbeat and it can be inconvenient and costly as well. Scientists learnt that by interrupting the specific pathway in the heart muscle through which the abnormal electrical signal travels some types of arrhythmias could be treated. This technique is called catheter ablation," says Dr. Balbir Singh, Senior Consultant Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology, Batra Hospital and Medical Research Centre.
He explains, "This advanced technology enables physicians to obtain virtual images - maps of the electrical activity within a patient's heart. During the procedure, physician guides a multi-electrode catheter into the patient's heart chamber. Without touching the walls of the heart, the system picks up electrical impulses from more than 3000 points within the chamber. Once the arrhythmias' location is confirmed, radio wave currents are transmitted through the catheter to cauterise the bad tissue."
Dr. Singh, who perfected the technique in the U.S, assures that catheter ablation has about an 85 to 98 per cent cure rate for arrhythmias. "The technique works best for patients suffering from threatening tachycardia or higher heart beat." About the complications, the doctor says that rarely there are some complications associated with the procedure, such as heart puncture or stroke; otherwise it's a safe technique for all almost age groups. Hope future holds less complicated matters of heart.
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