Last Tuesday, Dr. Sami Linjawi, the Head of the Radiology Society in the Kingdom inaugurated the first workshop for cardiologists and radiologists at the Al-Shefa Al-Ajel Center for training and educaion in Jeddah. The workshop lasted for three days and was attended by a large number of medical professionals related to the two fields. “This is the beginning of a continuing series of specialized courses in response to the recommendations of the Saudi Society of Radiation, the American Heart Association and the American Society for Radiation, all of which recommend the participation of all doctors related to this field in these courses before the summer of 2010,” explained Dr. Linjawi. These courses will enable the doctors “to correctly evaluate the results of a scan of the heart and coronary arteries, to provide a potential alternative for Cardiac Catheterization.” Linjawi spoke to the Saudi Gazette and hailed the workshop as a success and unique in terms of the information and enthusiasm amongst health professionals it provided. At the workshop itself, Dr. Rami Nema't Allah, an X-Ray consultant and specialist in radiology imagery gave a lecture on the importance of CT scans. In particular, he stressed the difference between the traditional X-Ray of the heart and Cardiac Catheterization, which involves the insertion of a catheter into a chamber or vessel of the heart. This is done for both investigational and interventional purposes. Coronary catheterization is a subset of this technique, involving the catheterization of the coronary arteries. “The new technique provides the most accurate examination of the heart, and is largely non-intrusive, ensuring the patient's comfort,” he said. In essence, the patient only needs to undergo the test for about five minutes with the result materializing immediately in the form of a photograph, instead of the intrusive and ‘surgical' catheterization which can hospitalize the patient for at least six hours. He added that these kind of technological developments have helped health professionals in the field ensure an accurate and high rate of safety for their patients. The risk of infections and complications as a result of the catheterization are also largely bypassed. “The technique also enables specialists to conduct more research in the field, and search for any deposits or blockages in the arteries,” Dr. Nema't Allah remarked. He concluded that the imaging or scanning of the heart and arteries have not yet been finalized as a proper substitute of catheterization, but could well replace all the procedural tests in the future. This is largely because the catheter could still be used for things like checking arteries suffering from diverticulitis.
