|
|
|
Cardiology Center
HIGHLIGHTS FROM FIRST GCC CARDIOVASCULAR CONFERENCE
(DOHA-QATAR) January 2002-The programme of the Conference proceeded as planned on Wednesday 16.1.2002 with the following lecturers and topics: "Endocarditis 2002: Diagnostic Challenges and Latest Management
Strategies" by Dr. Jamil Tajik (USA), Thursday 17th Jan was the final day of the conference with the following lectures: "Heart Failure - Where have we got to and where are we going?" by
Professor John McMurray (UK), In the beginning of the Closing Ceremony guest speakers thanked the Organizing Committee for the excellent conference arrangements saying they were very impressed by the scientific programme and attendance. As cardiovascular disease is increasing and is already the greatest cause of death in the Gulf, it is important to enhance communication and comradeship between cardiologists in the GCC. Dr. Hajar continued by thanking the participants for attending and taking cardiology forward. He announced the decisions made during the conference. According to the conference resolution, the next cardiovascular conference will be held in Muscat, Oman during the first half of January in 2004. Secondly, the conference stated that the Gulf Association of Cardiologists was founded. The society is meant for all cardiologists working in GCC countries. A 15-member executive committee was constituted and it will be headed by Qatar's Minister of Public Health Dr. Hajar Ahmed Hajar Al Binali. The association headquarters will be located in Qatar for the next two years, and the first meeting is scheduled to take place after two months. The first GCC Cardiovascular Conference gathered over 400 cardiologists from the GCC countries and outside the region. Tens of research papers from the GCC region were submitted and the conference aroused great interest.
NEW DEVICE COULD
REVOLUTIONIZE April 2001-A new surgical device that has been used by a Swiss medical team could greatly reduce the time and skill required for coronary-artery bypass surgery. Friedrich Eckstein, Thierry Carrel, and colleagues from University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland, used the device in a 61 year-old patient with acute angina to assist the process of coronary anastomosis-the joining of a coronary artery and vein graft to bypass blocked blood vessels. The new approach involves implantation of a stainless-steel mechanical coronary connector, without the need for highly skilled and time-consuming suturing (stitching) of the graft to the blood vessels. The procedure was done in November, 2000, and the patient was discharged from the hospital 9 days after surgery. The coronary connector device was developed by the St. Jude Medical Anastomotic Technology Group, Minneapolis, USA, having been successfully tested on animals where coronary anastomosis was done in less than three minutes with little training required. Friedrich Eckstein comments: "This technology might have tremendous impact on coronary-artery bypass surgery, especially now less-invasive approaches are gaining favor." Contact: Dr. Friedrich Eckstein or Professor Thierry Carrel, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland; Tel: 41 31 632 2375; Fax: 41 31 632 2919; Email: friedrich.eckstein@insel.ch or thierry.carrel@insel.ch. Source: The Lancet.
|
Copyright © 1999-2014 ArabMedicare.com. All rights reserved.
|
