PGI Develops Innovative ‘PAT’ Technique to Open Blocked Heart Arteries; Trial Shows 95% Success and Significant Cost Reduction
A new medical technique developed at PGI Chandigarh for opening blocked arteries in heart-attack patients has shown highly encouraging results, significantly reducing both risk to patients and the cost of treatment.
The method has been successfully tested on more than 260 patients and has achieved a success rate of nearly 95 percent. Apart from improving patient safety, the innovation has also helped reduce the cost of angioplasty procedures by as much as ₹25,000.
Senior cardiologist Dr. Naveen Garg has developed this new technique for placing stents in the arteries of the heart and has named it Pigtail Assisted Tracking (PAT).
Compared to conventional procedures, the technique considerably lowers complications that may arise while inserting the catheter.
According to the research findings, injuries at the wrist, swelling, clot formation, and other related complications during catheter insertion have been reduced by more than 50 percent when the PAT technique is used.
The research has been formally recognized and accepted by the Indian Heart Journal, underscoring its clinical significance and potential for wider adoption.
Dr. Garg explained that cardiologists usually rely on the traditional method known as Trans-Radial Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) to examine heart arteries and clear blockages.
In this widely used procedure, a catheter is inserted through the radial artery in the wrist and guided toward the blocked coronary artery.
However, because the catheter has a pointed tip, the procedure carries certain risks such as injury to the artery, swelling, pain, and other complications.
The newly developed PAT technique addresses these concerns by ensuring that the sharp tip of the catheter remains covered during insertion.
This protective mechanism prevents damage to the artery and helps maintain the safety of the blood vessel while the catheter is being advanced toward the blocked artery.
Dr. Garg further stated that the research involved 260 patients who required coronary intervention. Among them, 130 patients were treated using the traditional PCI technique, while the remaining 130 patients underwent the procedure using the new PAT method.
All the patients were closely monitored for 48 hours after the procedure.
During this period, Doppler examinations of the radial artery in the wrist were conducted to assess complications such as vascular injury, swelling, pain, and the possibility of artery blockage.
The findings revealed a clear advantage for the new technique. Patients treated with the conventional PCI method experienced significantly higher complications compared to those treated with the PAT approach.
The risk of complications in the PAT group was recorded at 11.5 percent, whereas the risk among patients treated with the traditional technique stood at 25.4 percent.
These results indicate that the Pigtail Assisted Tracking technique not only improves patient safety and procedural success but also reduces treatment costs, making it a promising advancement in cardiac care.
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