Precision diagnosis saves a life of a girl child at Medway Heart Institute
11-year-old Prinitha from Adambakkam, Chennai, is in her 5th class now. She is a bright student in her school with interests in painting and badminton. She has been playing badminton so well and is an active girl both in academics and sports.
In the recent past, Prinitha had consistent symptoms of faster heart rate, her parents weren’t able to take it light anymore. They took her to a hospital and she was found to have Abnormal life-threatening heart rhythm with a history of cardiac arrest 4-5 episodes, which necessitated external shocks to revive the patient.
After consultation and few opinions, she was directed by a few hospitals to get Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator fixed to her, to ensure survival. Defibrillator is a device that is implanted to a patient, which will deliver a strong internal electrical shock to restore the heartbeat to normal, in the event of tachycardia (abnormally fast heart rhythm). This is a conventional solution offered by medical practitioners, from a broader perspective to the patients with life threatening heart rhythm.
This is an expensive procedure which requires lifelong care of the device and frequent follow ups and change of battery every ten years for the rest of the life.
The parents visited Medway Heart Institute and consulted DrJaishankar, Director & Clinical LeadCardiology & Electrophysiology who did a thorough study of the patient’s medical history and examined her.
Again, during her stay in the ICU, she suffered another bout of cardiac arrest and was promptly revived, which worried the parents most.
After detailed investigations, Dr. Jaishankar diagnosed her to be having Atrial Flutter (with varying conduction 1:1, 2:1, 3:1) and decided to do a 3D ablation to map the patient’s heartrhythm and to find the exact status and possible solution.
The patient thus underwenta detailed Electrophysiology study and Radio frequency Ablation under General Anaesthesia and her heart rate was rectified to get back to normal. The entire treatment done to her has left her with no scars or no pain and she has been cooperative throughout her journey at Medway Heart Institute.
This precision diagnosis and righttreatment plan saved the patient’s life, cured her of the ailment with no further medications and lots of money involved in the lifelong treatment for such a condition.
Dr. Jaishankar who performed the procedure on the patient said, “Though there are plenty of technology available handy, it’s the human diagnosis and customised treatment plan that matter, rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach, especially in such cardiac procedures where the life of the patient and their hard-earned money is at stake. The entire procedure cost them just 3 lakhs which erstwhile would have cost a life and fortune.Now Prinitha is recovering well post discharge and doesn’t require any further medication. In fact she is also getting back to her badminton practice again.“
A research study published in the Journal (Eurospace 2008) of European Society of Cardiology says that “Clinicians should be aware of the potential for 1:1 AV conduction in AFL patients, especiallyin those with remarkable prolongation of the CL in addition to enhanced AV conduction.
Atrial flutter (AFL) with 1:1 atrioventricular (AV) conduction(1:1 AFL) can be associated with haemodynamic compromiseand require emergency treatment. Treatment with antiarrhythmicagents (AAs) can provoke this disorder bydecreasing the atrial rate.
The purposes of this retrospective study were to identifyclinical and electrophysiological characteristics of patientswho had suffered 1:1 AFL and to identify risk factors forthis hazardous arrhythmia.”
Ref:
“Clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of patients having atrial flutter with 1:1
atrioventricular conduction”
byMihoko Kawabata*, Kenzo Hirao, Kouji Higuchi, Takeshi Sasaki, Toshiyuki Furukawa,
Hiroyuki Okada, Hitoshi Hachiya, and MitsuakiIsobe
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan.
Eurospace 2008