CHENNAI: Frontier Lifeline Hospital has introduced a new equipment to measure arterial stiffness, which provides cardiologists an indicator to heart attack, cardiac failure or stroke.

Known risk factors such as diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking and hypertension lead to stiffness of the arteries, which results in an increased workload for the heart.

The Sphygmocor PX Pulse Wave Analysis System is a non-invasive tool to measure aortic stiffness and will be applied in the hospital's preventive cardiology programme.

Imported from Australia, the machine has the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. "Measuring aortic stiffness is emerging as a new indicator to predict future cardiovascular event," said Dr. K.M. Cherian, chairman of Frontier Lifeline. The equipment will enable cardiologists to establish the medical treatment and assess the improvement in cardiac status in response to the therapy.

Maximising benefit

The hospital will use the system in the hypertensive clinic to adjust the medication to maximise benefit to the patient.

Importantly, the technology allows cardiologists to start treatment at an earlier stage and recommend necessary preventive measures such as lifestyle modification, diet or exercise.

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