KARACHI, Dec 10: Health experts addressing a seminar advised parents having high blood pressure to take regular exercise and avoid excessive use of meat and tobacco to curb the chances of heart ailments in their children.
The seminar was held under the auspices of Dow University of Health Sciences Continuous Medical Education Activity in collaboration with the Pakistan Paediatric Cardiology and the Professional Development Centre on Monday.
DUHS Paediatrics Department Chairman Prof Inkisar Ali said that if good treatment along with good diagnostic facilities was given to such children, 85 per cent of them could reach their maturity age.
In his presentation on “Hypertension in children and dextrocardia imaging”, Prof Kalimuddin Aziz said children of hypertensive parents must visit doctors frequently as they were prone to high blood pressure. There was very rare abnormality of heart in children, he said, citing the ratio as one to 10,000. However, this does not lessen the importance of regular check-ups.
Dr Hasina Chagani of paediatric cardiology, who was also the programme’s coordinator, talked about the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever.
She said it was the commonest preventable acquired heart disease in developing countries and responsible for 40 to 60 per cent of admissions in cardiac wards and cardiac surgeries in poor countries.
The fever was caused by streptococcal infection of throat and could be prevented by either preventing sore throat from occurring or by treating it adequately with appropriate antibiotic, she observed.
Prof Mehnaz Atiq from Aga Khan University Hospital talked about international methods of treating cardiac defects.
Using the non-surgical technique, doctors check defects inside the heart and treat them with devices through cardiac catheterization without causing any incision, she said.
After such treatment, she said, a patient could go home within 24 hours and there was no scare involved.
The doctor also spoke of fatal echocardiography, where the heart of unborn baby was studied in the womb of the mother to exclude the birth defects and rhythm problems.
Dr Munir Amanullah of paediatric cardiac surgery department of the Aga Khan University Hospital covered the issues relating to surgical options for congenital cardiac defects and the relevant services offered in private sector.
Dr Hareel Hussain of cardiac surgery department of the DUHS briefed the audience about surgical services offered to patients with cardiac defects in public sector.—PPI
