Health Matters: ‘Life expectancy of heart patients up by 40 per cent'

"The conference will help shape the medical education programme" says Dr Ashraf Dar.

LAHORE:

The life expectancy of rhythm-related cardiac patients has increases by as much as 40 per cent due to modern diagnostic and treatment methods, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), speakers at a conference said on Friday.

They were speaking at the three-day international conference on Cardiac Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology. It is being organised by Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and Pakistan Heart Rhythm Society (PHRS).

Addressing the inaugural session, PIC chief executive Bilal Zakariah said the conference was focusing on the development of adult and pediatric cardiac pacing and clinical electrophysiology in Pakistan. He said the conference will discuss whether international guidelines are being followed. He said this was the first Pakistan HRS Biennial International Conference.

The conference convener Dr Ashraf Dar said the conference will help shape the medical education programme, exchange of trainees and medical personnel in the subjects.

He said cardiac electrophysiology began as a field in Pakistan in early 90s. He said now the PIC in Lahore, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Karachi, Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi, Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad and Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar have fully functional departments of electrophysiology.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to Professor Masood Akhtar to recognise his services for the development the fields in Pakistan and India. Professor Akhtar delivered a lecture on Wide Complex Tachycardia. The second day will discuss magnetic resonance imaging and management of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2012.