The patients with heart ailments in Uttarakhand can now get the condition of their heart monitored by cardiologists regularly from the comfort of their homes by a remote monitoring device which can be attached to their pacemaker. In a first of its kind in state, the Max hospital here has started putting this device on the cardiac patients.
The hospital organised a Cardiac Reconstruction Therapy (CRT) workshop on Tuesday. Addressing newsmen, the Director Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing, National University Heart Centre, Singapore, Dr Swee- Chong Seow, who along with cardiologists of Max hospital implanted CRT devices on two patients in the workshop, said that the remote monitoring device is connected to the CRT and it continuously records data of heart function. A patient can upload this data and send it to the cardiologist from his home. On examination of data the cardiologist can make inference about the condition of the patient without calling him to the hospital. On CRT, Dr Seow said that this device is implanted in the patients of heart failure and has three wires than two which a normal pacemaker has. An implanted CRT device helps in increasing pumping efficiency of the heart. “CRT devices not only serve the basic purpose to assist pumping efficiency of the heart but also record and store a host of diagnostic data happening in the heart continuously that further enable a most successful heart failure management if the same is available readily. In fact, a timely knowledge of such useful real-time diagnostic data, a physician can act even before primary symptoms may show up in heart failure patients and thus greatly eradicate chances of frequent need of emergency treatment and hospitalization which is very common of heart failure patients,’’ Dr Seow said.
Speaking on the occasion, Principal Consultant and Head of Department of Cardiology, Dr Preeti Sharma said that sudden death is one of the most common causes of death in India. Studies have shown that 60 per cent of all cardiac diseases are due to sudden cardiac arrest occurring due to arrhythmia. “Sudden death is preventable. There are more treatment options available for heart failure than ever before. lifestyle changes, medications and careful monitoring, are the first steps. As the condition progresses, doctors specializing in the treatment of heart failure can offer more advanced treatment options,’’ she informed. Dr Sharma further informed that the cost of planting a CRT device in heart is about `3.5 lakhs.