Philips and Al Qassimi Hospital collaborate on ULC-PCI educational programs to benefit patients

Philips and Al Qassimi Hospital collaborate on ULC-PCI educational programs to benefit patients

(IN BRIEF) Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah has become the first hospital in the Middle East to host a course on ultra-low-contrast percutaneous coronary intervention (ULC-PCI) sponsored by Philips. The course is part of a global education program, with attendees learning about Philips’ ultra-low-contrast PCI technologies and seeing them in action during live procedures on patients with coronary artery disease. ULC-PCI procedures minimize the amount of iodinated contrast media needed to be injected into the patient’s arteries to visualize them on X-ray images, opening up the possibility of using minimally-invasive procedures to treat coronary heart disease in patients whose kidneys cannot cope with contrast media toxicity. The course was attended by doctors from across the Middle East, Turkey, and Europe.

(PRESS RELEASE) AMSTERDAM, 17-Mar-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Last month, Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), a recognized center of excellence in cardiology, became the first hospital in the region to host a Philips-sponsored course on ultra-low-contrast percutaneous coronary intervention.
The course at Al Qassimi Hospital is part of a global education program rolled out by Philips that combines state-of-the-art health technology and clinical expertise for improved patient outcomes and better patient and staff experiences. The course was hosted under the directorship of leading interventional cardiologists Prof. dr. Arif Al Nooryani (CEO of Al Qassimi Hospital and UAE Ministry of Health Cardiologist) andProf. dr. Arif Al Nooryani (Head of the Interventional Cardiology Section at Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain). The 2-day course provided attendees from across The Middle East, Turkey and Europe the opportunity to learn a mixture of theoretical and practical sessions that allowed attendees to learn about Philips’ ultra-low-contrast PCI technologies and see them put into action during live procedures on patients with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

CEO of Al Qassimi Hospital and UAE Ministry of Health Cardiologist

Prof. dr. Arif Al Nooryani: “We are extremely happy with the success of the ultra-low-contrast PCI program at Al Qassimi Hospital, which will certainly benefit doctors and patients. We are aiming for a long-term close collaboration partnership with Philips to develop ULC-PCI educational programs.”

“Following the successful launch of our ULC-PCI training at EuroPCR in 2022 and the impressive results achieved by our clinical partners over the last year to treat vulnerable CAD patients, we are delighted that Al Qassimi Hospital is pioneering this training program to spread their expertise to physicians from the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Europe”, said Dr. Atul Gupta, Chief Medical Officer for Image Guided Therapy at Philips.

By minimizing the amount of iodinated contrast media that needs to be injected into the patient’s arteries to visualize them on X-ray images, ultra-low-contrast PCI procedures open up the possibility of using minimally-invasive procedures to treat coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients whose kidneys cannot cope with contrast media toxicity. This includes frail and elderly patients and patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). For patients with both CKD and CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) the benefits are especially relevant, because these two conditions tend to aggravate one another. Treating their heart disease can help their kidneys recover or slow the rate of kidney decline, contributing to a significant increase in quality of life.

Integrating seamlessly into Philips Image-Guided Therapy System – Azurion – the company’s next-generation image-guided therapy platform, Philips’ ultra-low-contrast PCI technology offers interventionalists greater confidence and clarity during PCI procedures by co-registering real-time intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and/or iFR physiological assessment data onto motion-compensated angiograms to aid PCI procedure planning, quantitative lesion measurement, stent choice and sizing, and therapy assessment. Registering a pre-acquired angiogram onto real-time fluoroscopy images, with automatic motion compensation to ensure accurate alignment largely eliminates the need to repeatedly inject contrast media into the patient’s coronary arteries to maintain their opacity. Philips’ IntraSight applications platform takes care of all the necessary co-registration and information display, while the company’s Dynamic Coronary Roadmap software helps interventionalists navigate guide wires and catheters to the targeted lesion. Philips’ OmniWire iFR pressure wire helps interventionalists assess the severity of coronary artery stenosis, while the company’s IVUS catheters add the ability to visualize the lumen of the affected vessel from within the artery and accurately measure lesion dimensions for optimum stent sizing.

Media Contact:

Joost Maltha
Philips Global Press Office
Tel: +31 6 10 55 8116

SOURCE: Philips