SGPGI cardiology study bags 1st prize
LUCKNOW: A study by the department of cardiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) about the role of a drug in chaotic heart rhythms, has won the first prize for excellence in cardiology, 2020.
Aditya Kapoor of the department of cardiology said, “Our team studied the role of a drug called Flecainide in 50 patients suffering from rheumatic heart disease (RHD) that involves the valves of the heart and often affects young people, in their prime and productive phase of life. Flecainide is used to treat certain types of abnormal heart rhythms and helps restore normal rhythm by blocking abnormal electrical signals in the heart. It has never been tried before in patients with RHD due to fears of cardiac toxicity.”
“In the first such study of its kind in the world, it was found that the drug was effective in achieving normal cardiac rhythm in nearly 75% cases with initial success rates, a result which was noted to be extremely encouraging. Patients who achieved normal rhythm had much better quality of life in follow up. No untoward side effects of the drug were observed,” Kapoor claimed.
He said, “The study was appreciated at the recently concluded AV Gandhi SCAI (Society of Cardiac angiography and Interventions) award session for excellence in Cardiology 2020, and Dr Anindya Ghosh, from the Dept of Cardiology, SGPGI, who presented the data, received the first prize from amongst the thesis submitted across India. The study is likely to give a ray of hope to many patients afflicted by mitral valve disease and atrial fibrillation, to achieve normal cardiac rhythm and lead to a good quality of life.” He said that the study is important because India has a very high burden of RHD patients. The estimated average prevalence is 0.5/1000 children in the age group of 5–15 years, meaning that there are expected to be more than 3.6 million patients of RHD with nearly 40,000-50,000 patients added every year.
RHD usually leads to valve stenosis (narrowing) and regurgitation (leakage) with narrowing of the mitral valve (mitral stenosis or MS) being the commonest outcome of RHD.