Top Advances in Prevention & treatment of cardiovascular disease

Top advances in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease

This World Heart Day, 29^th September 2020 Meril partnered with Zee Business for their special edition 'Aapki Khabar Aapka Fayda' to create awareness about the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, causes, symptoms and the advancement in technologies to treat it. Meril is a global medical device company that manufactures a cutting edge medical technologies in the various segment and Cardiovascular devices are one of their strength. Top Interventional Cardiologists from India were also invited to share information on CVD, stents, and heart valve technologies.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) also called Heart diseases are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels. The numerous problems causing most of the CVD is atherosclerosis, a process mainly governed by lifestyle factors.  It is estimated that 17.7 million people died from CVDs in 2015, representing 31% of all deaths taking place worldwide; more people die every year from CVDs than from any other cause (World Health Organization (2017). Cardiovascular diseases are showing an increase among the Indian population. Co-morbidity patients are prone to having heart diseases. Studies show that heart disease is no longer an old age disease as even the young population can suffer from a heart attack. Also, a woman’s lifetime risk of dying from heart diseases is eight times greater than that of breast cancer. Elderly people often have degenerated heart valves tissues, leading to valve diseases like aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, etc. Apart from coronary artery disease that plagues a large number of elderly patients, such valve-related issues constitute another significant disease burden that is not adequately diagnosed or addressed.

Minimally invasive interventions is an important mantra to keep in mind when treating cardiac disease. Multiple options of stents and valves are today available to treat patients. Dr. Praveen Chandra, M.D., D.M. & Chairman, Division of Interventional Cardiology, Medanta Heart Institute talking about BRS- Bioresorbable Scaffolds (Dissolving stent that gets absorbed after 3 years) said that the rate of coronary heart disease in young Indian men is almost twice as high as that in their western counterparts. Commonly Drug-eluting stents (DES) are used to treat the diseased area of the artery and prevent the vessel from repeat-narrowing. Such stents are traditionally made of metal; their role is to provide temporary scaffolding to the blockage or lesion site and also to deliver a drug to facilitate healing. Dissolving stents fully disappear within about three years. Without a permanent metallic structure left behind, the blood vessel can continue to expand (dilate) and contract (constrict) naturally. There is a wide range of specially designed stents (thinner stent, longer stent), to address different kinds of uniquely challenging CAD types.

While Dr. Ravinder Rao Singh, M.D., D.M., Cardiology FACC, Eternal Hospital, Jaipur said initially for treating valve disease highly invasive open-heart surgery was the only option but today advanced innovations have produced safe, effective, and minimally invasive alternative therapies such as TAVR or TAVI. A whole range of complex valve cases are being regularly done using TAVR/TAVI procedure across the world, with the clinical studies showing fantastic outcomes across multiple age groups of patients. Also talking about the Indian medical industry, Dr. Praveer Aggarwal, M.D., D.M., Director, Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said “we are good in stent technology. There are a few  Indian companies manufacturing high standard stent currently which are equivalent to international standards”. They are not only manufacturing the stents but also exporting on a large scale.

“Cardiovascular disease remains the number-one threat to women’s health; there is a pronounced gender difference in cardiovascular mortality, more women than men die each year”, said Dr. Sengottuvelu, Senior Interventional Cardiologist Apollo Hospitals, Chennai & Director, Heart Valve Foundation of India & India Valves. He also said one should not be negligent about their heart health and if experiencing any symptoms, immediately consult a cardiologist.

Meril has developed more than 100 technologies across therapy areas including many first indigenously designed and developed medical devices in the cardiac implants space: 1st Transcatheter Heart Valve Replacement System (THV), 1st Bioresorbable Scaffold (BRS) for coronary and peripheral arteries, 1st Dedicated Bifurcation Stent for coronary artery disease and 1st 50micron strut thickness Drug-Eluting Stent (the world’s thinnest).  Meril designed Myval and MeRes100, two such innovative technologies for the treatment of vascular and valvular disease therapy areas to serve critical patients’ needs.  Not in the field of cardiac implants but also in the Orthopedic field Meril has made some great innovation for Knee replacement and Hip replacement. Meril has patented a new technology called Opulent Bionik Gold Knee for knee replacement surgery which is better than other implants of similar category and the most biocompatible non-allergic surface material.

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