KARACHI, March 13: The Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases has started providing a new non-invasive cardiac therapy to patients who have tried the conventional methods of treatment with little success.

Senior heart physicians and surgeons told newsmen at a press briefing on Thursday that the new technique – known as angiogenesis in medical parlance – was considered a potential method to treat ischemic myocardium. They claimed that no such facility existed anywhere else in Pakistan.

Angiogenesis involves development or growth of new blood vessels. The KIHD has imported a small computerised German-made devise to carry out the medical procedure.

Dr Zahid Rasheed of the KIHD said the new technique gave a new lease of life to heart patients having few treatment options.

He explained that the technique was based on the application of extracorporeal sound waves to an area of those heart muscles which were not working properly on account of blocked arteries. He said the treatment initiated development of collateral arteries in the affected areas, increasing the supply of blood to the ischemic area of the heart and improving its myocardial perfusion. He said the medical treatment suited angina-class heart patients.

Prof Abdus Samad, the KIHD executive directive and principal investigator, said while the new treatment at the city government-run heart centre offered an exciting opportunity to researchers, it would be offered to patients as a substitute for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting or Percutaneus Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty.

“We at first plan to make the therapy available to 50 people free of cost in a 50-week period spreading over nine treatment sessions. Afterwards, patients would have to pay a certain service charge.”

He said the country had a significant number of people who had already tried conventional bypass surgery or experienced balloon angioplasty. He added that at least six coronary artery disease patients had already started the new therapy.

Prof Mohammad Ishaq of the KIHD said that the new facility would give an additional option to people who had already experienced a surgical opening of their chests for bypass grafting and had already got an area of arterial blockage dilated.

He added that some KIHD doctors had been specially trained by therapy experts from the US.

Prof Waqar Kazmi, KIHD Director Research and Chairman of the Ethical Committee, said the new technique would help improve the symptoms of a large number patients who were in redo phase or not suitable for bypass surgery or revascularisation.

The KIHD Deputy Director, Dr Sirajul Haq Tariq, said similar facilities were being offered in Europe and America and even in Thailand for around $4,000 per therapy. He said the cardiac angiogenesis therapy machine available at the KIHD was the first of its kind in the country.

He told newsmen that the institute was holding a three-day international cardiology symposium from March 14.

“We have dedicated the symposium, which will be held on an yearly basis in future, to the country’s pioneering cardiologist, Dr Abdul Haque, who remained associated with KIHD and who died in 2006.”

It was said at the press briefing that although the success rate and efficacy of the newly introduced system at KIHD had been remarkable internationally, an independent study was being conducted at the institute to assess the safety of the technique for patients having no treatment options.

In reply to a question, Prof Samad said that patients would be selected under a referral system through cardiac physicians, followed by an evaluation by a group of experts.