Free camp includes MRI for Heart & Liver, Ferritin Blood Test and consultation with the doctor
Bengaluru, Thursday, June 23, 2016: Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center at Narayana Health City located on Hosur Road is organising a free screening Camp for Thalassemia patients on Sunday, 26th June, 2016 from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm. The camp includes T2 star MRI for the Heart and Liver as well as Ferritin Blood Test to find the iron content in blood apart from consultation with a senior pediatric hematologist. The camp is for children above 6 years of age with Thalassemia.
Dr. Sunil Bhat, Head-Pediatric Hematology, Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplant at Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center, Narayana Health City said “The main purpose of this camp is to identify the level of iron in liver and heart and then decide on further treatment. Heart and liver are mostly affected by iron deposition and it can damage liver and lead to heart failure. This will guide us better in taking care of them properly.”
The camp is aimed at creating awareness among Thalassemia patients who need to undergo blood transfusion every two-three weeks, due to which the iron content in their body keeps overloading leading to cardiac disease (including heart dysfunction and arrhythmias), pulmonary hypertension, bone disease (including osteoporosis), endocrine diseases (including hypothyroidism and hypogonadism), liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.
As per the Indian Academy of Pediatrics every year approximately 100,000 children with Thalassemia Major are born world over, of which 10,000 are born in India. It is estimated that there are about 65,000-67,000 β-thalassemia patients in our country with around 9,000-10,000 cases being added every year(1-7). The carrier rate for β-thalassemia gene varies from 1 to 3% in Southern India to 3% to 15% in Northern India. Certain communities in India, such as Sindhis and Punjabis from Northern India, Bhanushali’s, Kutchis, Lohana’s from Gujarat, Mahar’s, Neobuddhist’s, Koli’s and Agri’s from Maharashtra, & Gowda’s and Lingayat’s from Karnataka etc. have a higher carrier rate(3,4).
Bone Marrow Transplant is the only cure for Thalassemia and Narayana Health City has successfully performed many Bone Marrow Transplants on Thalassemia children.
About Narayana Health:
Narayana Health (formerly Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals) founded by Dr. Devi Shetty has 26 hospitals across 16 cities with total of 6900 beds. The flagship hospital at NH Health City in Bangalore has India’s largest Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and Dialysis unit with tertiary care expertise in Liver, Kidney and Heart transplants. The Group has one of the largest tele-medicine networks, and has performed the highest number of heart surgeries in the world. Narayana Health is transforming healthcare delivery through process innovation.
About Narayana Health City, Bengaluru:
NH Health City is located in Bommasandra, Bengaluru, which comprises of Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences (NICS), a superspecialty hospital for cardiology and cardiac surgery, and Mazumdar Shaw Medical Center (MSMC), a multispecialty hospital for cancer care, neurology and neurosurgery, nephrology, urology, and houses what we believe, is one of India's largest bone marrow transplant units. NH Health City operates a stem cell bank.