As new cardiac procedure is introduced...Heart rhythm disorder is a common medical condition

As new cardiac procedure is introduced…Heart rhythm disorder is a common medical condition – Cardiologists

May 23, 2018 News

Based on the size of the population and the known global statistics, there is likely to be quite a few thousand people living in Guyana with heart rhythm disorder. This is according to Interventional Cardiologist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen.

Dr. Mahendra Carpen

Although many patients have been diagnosed with the condition over the years, they were only able to receive treatment for the associated symptoms.
As its name suggests, heart rhythm disorder is an abnormal variation from the normal heartbeat. Moreover, heart rhythm disorders involve abnormalities, including irregular heart beat and rate.
Although cardiac experts have concluded that heart rhythm disorders or arrhythmias could be harmless, it has been deduced that if they are particularly abnormal or result from a weak or damaged heart the disorder can cause serious and even potentially fatal symptoms.
But not many doctors are familiar with the procedure to fix this condition. This was amplified by Chief Interventional Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at Health City in the Cayman Island, Dr. Ravi Kishore.
With more than 20 years of experience in cardiology, Dr. Kishore said that far too often symptoms of heart rhythm disorder are continually perpetuated in patients, especially young people, because they are not properly diagnosed and treated.
Given the realisation that the condition is one that is quite prevalent among Guyanese and that no service was being offered to rid the problem, Dr. Carpen, a trained Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist himself, saw the need to introduce cardiac electrophysiology.
Cardiac electrophysiology as a cure for heart rhythm disorder was introduced for the first time to Guyana’s health care system this past weekend at the Woodlands Hospital.
It was spearheaded by Dr. Carpen, with support from Dr, Kishore, who offered the procedure to four patients who have been suffering for a number of years and had sought his medical attention in the past.
As he lauded Dr. Carpen’s decision to introduce the procedure, Dr. Kishore said, “Since this has never been done in Guyana before, there must be a number of patients who require this. This is a major step in the management of cardiac diseases in Guyana.”
“You all know about angioplasty, you know about stents but this is an electrical disorder of the heart and it is very much required. This is the first step…many patients may not have come for this service before because many doctors are not aware of it [the condition] to diagnose it properly,” said Dr. Kishore.

Dr. Ravi Kishore

The cardiac electrophysiology procedure known as Radiofrequency Catheter Ablations for arrhythmias is a procedure that is performed to correct any disturbance in the heart rhythm.
The need for the procedure to address the condition was first brought to Dr. Carpen’s attention back in 2013 when he attended the 28th Caribbean Cardiac Society Scientific Conference in Curaçao,
There he was tasked with making two oral presentations on the state of Cardiology in Guyana.
But according to Dr. Carpen, the issue of arrhythmia was not discussed very much at the forum as a challenge in the Caribbean. In fact, he disclosed that the only presentation on the condition was made by a representative from the Dominican Republic.
“Nothing came out of the English-speaking Caribbean, and that is not surprising, because there is only one other place in the Caribbean that I know of that does any work in Radiofrequency ablations for arrhythmias, and that is Trinidad.”
He noted even back then that this is an avenue that Guyana will be seeking to pursue with a view to offering the procedure to persons not only here but also in the English-speaking Caribbean too.
Although the condition is one that can affect just about anyone within the population, Dr. Carpen had explained that it is known to happen mainly in young women and is usually caused by an abnormal electric circuit within the heart. He said that there are many patients who have complaints relating to “their heart racing and palpitation that occurs from time to time.”
Although there are medicines that can help to treat the condition, Dr. Carpen pointed out that there could be some side effects, thus the need for Radiofrequency ablations. The one to two hours long procedure is one that allows a Cardiac Electrophysiologist to operate on a patient while in a conscious state.