NON-INVASIVE VASCULAR PROFILE TEST

Why to die young when you can die of ripe old age?

Those of you familiar with Indian literature must have heard of Tenali Raman the prodigal court jester of King Krishnadevaraya and his wit. The story goes that once when he was sentenced to die and asked to choose his own mode of death, he wisely chose to die of ‘Old Age’ and his presence of mind saved his life. Yes, indeed most humans would prefer to die of old age than any other mode. That is if they escape the number one killer that is ‘Heart disease and stroke’ that claims 17.5 million lives each year. Heart disease and stroke kills more women each year than cancer, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. One more co-morbidity is diabetes in which the risk of cardiovascular morbidity is 3 to 4 times more. With advances in medicine, however, it is now possible to detect your risk for heart diseases well in advance to actually prevent them. In this article get introduced to a new test, a non-invasive, economical, efficient and speedy option called, ‘Vascular Profiler test’ that has come forth as the primary choice among the armamentarium of investigations available, for detecting Cardiovascular diseases.

THE FUNDAMENTALS
The heart supplies blood to various parts of the body through blood vessels called arteries. The blood is pushed ahead by the pulsating action of alternate contraction and relaxation of the arteries. The inner layer of arteries produces a number of substances such as nitric oxide, which help to maintain the elasticity of the artery walls. When an individual is in the high-risk category such as having family history, smoking habit, etc the arteries become less elastic. As a result, the arteries do not contract and relax, as they should leading to increased pressure inside your arteries and later inflammation.

In healthy people, the arteries are relaxed but inflammation is possible. This may happen due to unhealthy lifestyle of fast foods and sedentary lifestyle. Increased fat intake causes cholesterol that should normally flow along with blood, to be retained in the vessel wall and this leads to heart attacks and strokes.

WHAT DOES THE VASCULAR PROFILE TEST TELL YOU?

Handy clinical information can be gathered by the use of this test. It works on the principle of ABI (Ankle Brachial index) and PWV (Pulse Wave Velocity) as an index of arterial wall stiffness and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Therefore the test is useful for

• Early detection of hardening and stiffening of arteries
• Determining the biological age.
• Assessing complete cardiovascular health including:

• The state of the heart by an electrocardiogram (ECG)
• The sounds of the heart by a phonocardiogram (PCG)
• The state of blood vessels by checking blood pressure
• The blood flow in the blood vessels and progress of inflammation by recording the pulsation wave of your artery.

Make suitable lifestyle changes:

• Reduce the intake of oily food, butter, fast foods
• Exercise regularly
• Refrain from smoking
• Relax-do not get stressed
• Get your lipids in order by a routine check
• Follow your doctor's advice on medications, diet and exercise

ADVANTAGES

Real-time characteristics of blood flow and vascular patterns through the arteries and veins are the hallmark of cardiovascular monitoring. But to derive such cardiovascular information one needs to use highly invasive methodologies rendering the patient to various risks and morbidities. Infections with blood borne diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis are a major problem both to the patient as well as the personnel involved. Complications can cause unnecessary and extended hospital stays. Also invasive techniques require sophisticated infrastructure and highly skilled professionals on the job. Herein lies the inherent advantage of the non-invasive vascular profiler, which measures elasticity of the arteries on the basis of parameters like height, weight, BMI and blood pressure. Such a procedure finds immense application in the situations where continuous cardiovascular monitoring is required especially among the elderly and the test is bound to have a positive impact on the quality of health care.

Article By Dr.R.Ravindranath M.D., Consultant in Cardiac & Diabetic Care, Chennai

For further details contact 9381047102 , ravidiacare@yahoo.com