MEDICAL FRONTIERS

Relief with new generation stents

Mumbai: The new generation of stents that are being used to treat heart patients has brought major relief to them with the incidence of re-blockage of the vessels coming down by a significant amount.

Medical sources said that stents are being increasingly used in treating heart patients who have a blocked vessel that needs to be opened up. While the earlier stents were bare metal ones that merely served the purpose of keeping the artery open, the recent generation of stents also have a drug coating on them that was useful in treatment of the heart condition.

According to Dr Lekha Pathak, director of cardiology, Nanavati Superspeciality Hospital, the new generation stents have a special kind of drugs coated on them that prevent the same artery from getting blocked again. “This is important because the incidence of re blockage – also known as restenosis – is quite high among the high risk patients. These are the patients who are suffering diabetes, hypertension, high lipid profile, smokers or even those suffering from severe stress,” she said.

The cardiologist explained that another advantage of these new generation stents is that they get absorbed in the body over a period of time. “This is another factor that makes these stents the choice of treatment among the young generation since they may not want the stent to be seen through an angiography at a later stage,” she pointed out. However, there is a likelihood of about five percent of the patients getting stent thrombosis and which is mainly seen in patients with diabetes.

Medical sources said that around 20 % of the heart patients today are under 40 years of age and a lot of women are also getting affected by this condition. “The reason for increasing heart conditions among women is that that they are also now exposed to same stress and strain of modern life and there are many who are regular smokers and also consume alcohol,” a senior doctor said.  It has also been seen that every third patient coming with a heart problem is already suffering from diabetes. This makes it crucial to make important lifestyle changes so that these conditions can be prevented to some extent, sources said.

With the increase in heart disease in the population, it has now become crucial that a patient must reach a cardiac institution within three hours of the episode, Dr Pathak said. “It is for this reason that we have set up a 24 hour emergency centre at Nanavati Hospital for the patients so they can be taken up immediately for the necessary procedure,” she explained.

New method can wipe out
cancerous cells in two hours

New York: An experimental method that can kill up to 95 per cent of cancer cells in two hours and may tremendously help people with inoperable or hard-to-reach tumours, as well as young children stricken with cancer, a study suggests.

The newly patented method to kill cancer cells has been developed by Matthew Gdovin, Associate Professor at University of Texas at San Antonio. The new treatment involves injecting a chemical compound, nitrobenzaldehyde, into the tumour and allowing it to diffuse into the tissue.

He then aims a beam of light at the tissue, causing the cells to become very acidic inside and, essentially, commit suicide. With this method, Gdovin estimated, up to 95 per cent of the targeted cancer cells die withing two hours.

"Even though there are many different types of cancers, the one thing they have in common is their susceptibility to this induced cell suicide," Gdovin said.

Gdovin tested his method against triple negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive types of cancer and one of the hardest to treat. After one treatment in the laboratory, he was able to stop the tumor from growing and double chances of survival in mice.

Gdovin hopes that his non-invasive method will help cancer patients with tumors in areas that have proven problematic for surgeons, such as the brain stem, aorta or spine. It could also help people who have received the maximum amount of radiation treatment and can no longer cope with the scarring and pain that goes along with it, or children who are at risk of developing mutations from radiation as they grow older.

"There are so many types of cancer for which the prognosis is very poor," he said.

"We're thinking outside the box and finding a way to do what for many people is simply impossible," Gdovin said.