Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Two new clinics at SCTIMST

Thiruvananthapuram: The Department of Imaging Sciences and Interventional Radiology at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) is starting two special clinics for backache and peripheral endovascular diseases.

The clinics will be formally launched on Wednesday by SCTIMST director K. Mohandas.

Backache is a common ailment, affecting 80 to 90 per cent of men and women in the 30 to 50 years’ age group. Chronic pain of the lower back is a common cause of distress.

It is also a major cause of physical, social and psychological disabilities.

Backache can be caused by accident or injury to the spine or be the result of a degenerative or metabolic disease. It can also be the result of developmental problems or a tumour.

Inflammatory diseases such as arachnoiditis or arthritis, congenital problems or infections such as meningitis and vertebral osteomyelitis or even urinary infection can cause chronic back pain.

It is important that backache and its causes are assessed accurately and managed properly.

The backache clinic at the SCTIMST will provide comprehensive clinical and radiological evaluation of backache and related problems. Image-guided minimally invasive interventions will then be suggested. These will be supported by physiotherapy and rehabilitation activities. In-patient care will also be provided, wherever necessary. The main purpose of the peripheral endovascular diseases clinic is to identify people who may be at risk for peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) or suffer from peripheral vascular diseases (PVD) and manage their pain.

Peripheral arteries become narrow or blocked owing to fatty deposits (atherosclerosis), affecting blood supply to main organs such as the heart, the brain or the limbs in PVD.

Early identification of PVD and proper intervention are important as it predisposes one to heart diseases or stroke.

The most common causes of PVD are smoking, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and old age.

Some 5 to 10 per cent of those above the age of 50 have been found to have PVD and the number of people with this condition is expected to go up as the proportion of the aged population increases.

Many consider PVD a part of aging but it is a disease that can be diagnosed and treated early. The PVD clinic will also offer radiological and clinical evaluations with supportive treatment such as physiotherapy.

Both the backache and the PVD clinics will function from 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Radiology out-patient department.

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