BIT in Colombo for the first time
Wide and varied discussions on heart health with three live sessions as highpoint
It was all about the heart and how to keep it beating for patients with different types of cardiovascular diseases. It was also a ‘first’ for Sri Lanka when a cardiology summit held over the years either in India or Bangladesh chose Colombo as its venue for 2024.
The 14th Bangla Intervention Therapeutics (BIT) Summit – 2024 was held in Colombo on February 9 and 10 in association with the Sri Lanka College of Cardiology (SLCC) headed by Dr Tanya Pereira.
The idea of making Colombo a venue had come about when a young Sri Lankan Cardiologist made a presentation at the BIT Summit last year (2023), it is understood. When this suggestion was conveyed to Sri Lanka, then SLCC President Dr Chandrike Ponnamperuma had warmly welcomed it, extending his and his council’s fullest support.
Current SLCC President Dr Pereira had taken it forward.
While Sri Lanka hosted the summit, the foreign delegates, numbering 200, had funded their air fare and hotel stays without placing any economic burdens on this country.
The summit saw discussions followed by lively and robust interactions, when Consultant Cardiologists moved out of their clinics and catheterization laboratories (cath labs) to exchange views and opinions on heart science.
Interestingly, the slim but colourful programme book had iconic structures of relevance to the three countries – the Ruwanveliseya for Sri Lanka; the Taj Mahal for India and the National Monument for Bangladesh.
The topics at the summit were wide and varied and included revascularization (restoring blood flow in blocked arteries); percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI); the importance of intravascular ultrasound
(IVUS); calcium modification; cardiovascular future and new frontiers; aneurysms; when coronaries start bleeding; cath lab nightmares and cath lab mystery; when a young life is on a string; potpourri in interventional cardiology; chronic total occlusion (a complete or near-complete blockage in one or more coronary arteries); latest interventional trials; and artificial intelligence (AI) in the detection of cardiovascular diseases.
The highlights included ‘Live Sessions’ on ‘Left main stenting with ultrasound guidance’; ‘Heavily calcified vessel stented after rotablation (calcium modification)’; and ‘Application of drug-coated balloon in coronary artery intervention’ from a private hospital. The spotlight was
also turned on challenging cases by experts.
The course directors of the summit were Prof Rabin Chakraborty from India, Prof Afzalur Rahman from Bangladesh and Dr W S Santharaj from Sri Lanka.
The academic committee, meanwhile, comprised Dr Naomali Amarasena, Dr Nimali Fernando, Dr Tanya Pereira, Dr Chandrike Ponnamperuma, Dr W S Santharaj and Dr Upul Wickramarachchi from Sri Lanka; Prof Rabin Chakraborty and Dr Arindam Pande from India; and Dr Farhana Ahmed, Dr Khondoker Asaduzzaman, Dr Aaysha Cader, Dr Kaisar Nasrullah Khan, Dr Afzalur Rahman and Dr Arifur Rahman from Bangladesh.