Medicines, lifestyle changes as effective as stents: Study

FINDINGS POINT TO A BIG SAVING IN COST IF INVASIVE PROCEDURES ARE DONE AWAY WITH.

New Delhi: Medicines and lifestyle modifications can work as well as invasive procedures such as putting stents or performing a bypass surgery for blocked arteries in patients with severe but stable heart disease, according to a new research.

The study, presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in the US on Saturday, looked at whether procedures to restore normal blood flow in patients with stable heart disease offer an added benefit over more conservative treatment with aspirin, cholesterollowering drugs and other measures. “For patients with stable ischemic heart disease, but with mild symptoms of angina (chest pain) that doesn’t hamper their routine functions, the best way to treat is targeted medical therapy. It is seen that additional angiography and angioplasty or bypass surgery do not bring any additional benefit in survival or reduction in heart attacks,” according to Dr Upendra Kaul, chairman, cardiology, Batra Hospital and Medical Research Center.

Dr Kaul was the leading investigator from India for the sevenyear, 5,179-patient ISCHEMIA study. The trial involved patients with moderate-to-severe but stable ischemia, a condition in which clogged arteries are not able to supply the heart with enough oxygen-rich blood.

According to the findings, a significant amount could be saved annually in health care costs if invasive procedures are done away with. Dr David Maron, a cardiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-chair of the study, estimating that just eliminating unnecessary stenting procedures could save the US health care system $500 million annually. While the study confirms that in a section of heart patients there may not be the immediate need to perform an angioplasty or a heart bypass surgery,, experts said only the doctor must take a call on whether a patient falls in the safe category or not. “This has long-reaching implications; we need to be extra careful in not conveying that all patients can be managed with medicines, which is not the case,” said Dr Praveen Chandra, chairman, interventional cardiology, Medanta, The Medicity.

NEW DELHI : The Proposed River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Bill, 2019, that is being tabled in the upcoming winter session of the Parliament, is one of India’s most ambitious environmental bills. The bill seeks to protect the river from being ripped apart by sand mining on the one hand and being starved of water on the other. Sewage discharge is also one of the no-nos.