A three-day training programme on echocardiography and accurate detection of heart disease was organised at Sterling Hospital, with an aim to reduce the increasing number of cardiac-related deaths in the rural belt of the state, which mostly occur due to lack of accurate preliminary diagnosis.

Experts said almost 5 to 10 per cent of cardiac patients in the rural belt die due to lack of preliminary diagnosis.

The incompetence of early detection in the rural areas has further increased the count, they added.

The three-day training programme will be headed by specialists in echocardiography, including Dr Bharat Dalvi from Mumbai, Dr K Raghu from Hyderabad, Dr Sameer Srivastava from New Delhi, Dr P Manokar from Chennai and Dr Jaydeep Desai from Rajkot.

Around 100 private and government doctors attended the training on Friday. The participating doctors will be trained to diagnose the various cardiac problems through echocardiography.

Dr Kamaldeep Chawla, intervention cardiologist, Sterling Hospital, said: “There is nothing new in the use of Echocardiography. However, most of doctors who are aware of it in theory, do not have much experience. Due to ignorance, the delayed detection in patient often leads to death.”

He added: “The risk is high in the rural areas where patients are not diagnosed accurately and are instead referred to tertiary centres or city-based hospitals. The patients either do not want to travel to the city or are brought there at a critical stage. However, if the rural doctors can diagnose the exact problem well in time, many such patients can be saved.”

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