Prevention is better than cure. And among the high risk diseases that can be avoided through early detection and monitoring are Peripheral Vascular Diseases (PVD) and Diabetes Mellitus, which if left unchecked may cause severe disability or even death.
While others have to go abroad to seek quality treatment, Quezon City residents can avail of world-class yet affordable treatment without having to leave the city.
Avoiding the ‘silent killer’
Filipinos normally disregard the silent symptoms that something is wrong with their state of health, including problems involving blood vessels that may lead to organ failure because of erratic blood circulation.
While there are generally no early manifestations of this silent killer until a sudden “rupture” of the arteries occur, those with high risks of developing the disease – commonly linked to smoking, having hypertension and/or atherosclerosis, and other risk factors – should seek help through early detection.
Right at the very heart of the state-run hospital National Kidney Transplant Institute lies a one-stop vascular treatment facility called iVASC (Integrated Vascular Surgical Complex), which specializes on vascular health and disease management and minimally invasive treatments of problems such as aortic aneurysms.
iVASC’s founding director Dr. Ricky Quintos said that instead of having to go through different hospital units for several tests just to get a diagnosis, NKTI’s iVASC is the first place of its kind in Asia where diagnostic procedures and treatment can be done in just one facility.
The NKTI, being a specialized center for kidney diseases, became the first in the country to create a specialized unit in catering to PVDs and aneurysms to address these prevalent vascular conditions.
Being the national referral center for kidney disease patients, NKTI has observed that nearly all patients with chronic wounds have vascular conditions. This prompted NKTI to adopt a mandatory ultrasound visualization of veins when putting in hemodialysis catheters, leading to a decrease in procedural complications from 20 percent to less than one percent.
The same application is now being used to treat varicose veins by performing a minimally-invasive ultrasound-guided catheter-based removal along with a non-contact cutaneous laser that can “vaporize” varicose veins.
Specialists at the NKTI can also now perform minimally invasive treatments of abdominal aortic aneurysms where patient information from CT-scans can be sent directly to their partners in Singapore and Malaysia, which in turn manufacture custom-made endovascular stent graft.
Treating the ‘common’
Diabetes is a common ailment among Filipinos, with at least 4 million suffering from the disease. In fact, the Philippines has already been included in the list of top 15 countries with the highest diabetes prevalence.
Like cancer, diabetic risk can be passed on through generations. Incidence also increases for people with vascular disease and women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Research abroad showed that kids born over eight pounds or to moms with gestational diabetes are also more predisposed to the disease.
At St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, its Diabetes, Thyroid & Endocrine Center is the country’s first and only hospital-based facility equipped to provide complete outpatient and inpatient diagnostic and therapeutic services for diabetes, thyroid and other endocrine diseases.
In treating Diabetes Mellitus, several dynamic tests are conducted, such as separate oral glucose tolerance for pregnant and non-pregnant patients as well as oral glucose tolerance with serum insulin to determine blood glucose levels in the body.
The center also conducts comprehensive diabetes education among its patients, along with lessons on insulin self-administration and self-monitoring of blood sugar. It also has a one-stop-shop for installation and care of insulin pump, open 24/7.
