Heart attack, time bomb

(L-R) Dr Chen Zijun of the 14th Chinese Medical Team, Dr Wesong Boko, Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Gurbhej Singh, Certified Proctor for Valve Interventions, Dr Pham Cong Nam, Interventional Cardiologist during the TAVI procedure (Image: PMGH)

Cardiac or heart specialists in the country have warned of a "time bomb" with the increasing number of primary heart cases seen at the Port Moresby General Hospital heart center in a day.

It's been revealed in the past, about 2-3 primary cases of heart attack present at the cardiac unit in the space of 2 or 3 months, however that's increased to 2-3 a day for Port Moresby General Hospital.

Primary cases are those who suffer heart attack at work, or at home.

The second group of admissions are those with coronary artery diseases due largely to high blood pressure, cholesterol and obesity which then give rise to blockages in the coronary arteries.

Head of the Port Moresby General Hospital Catheterization Laboratory and Interventional Cardiologist Dr Wesong Boko told the NBC National radio talk back show, there is a need for more awareness.

Port Moresby General Hospital Cardio Thoracic Surgeon Dr Noah Tapaua says since 2015, through the Open Heart program about 2000 patients have been treated, with a mortality rate of less than 2 percent.

Dr. Boko clarified that from the 2-thousand patients seen to date, half of them paid no fees, while some paid ranging from K200 to K300, which is a huge savings compared to the thousands of kinas spent overseas for the same treatment.

AI use in first ever TAVI

The artificial valve implanted in the heart to replace the natural valve (Image: PMGH)

Furthermore, the country's national referral hospital is making strides in the provision of specialist health care services, including keeping up and utilizing technology.

This through the country's first-ever Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation or TAVI procedure performed on a patient over the weekend.

The cardiac team told NBC News, the use of Artificial intelligence or AI played a huge role in this procedure.

The "minimally invasive procedure replaced a diseased aortic valve with an artificial valve" to allow for normal flow of blood from the heart to body with the assistance of technology.

The artificial valve, known as Myval, manufactured in India was used in the TAVI procedure (Image: PMGH)

The life-saving procedure was performed on a 54-year-old male whose heart condition deteriorated over the years and was rejected twice from the Open-Heart surgery program due to his age.

Port Moresby General Hospital Cardio Thoracic Surgeon Dr Noah Tapaua in response to questions from this newsroom, says through the use of AI, planning for the procedure was done with the partner team in India.

Head of the Port Moresby General Hospital Catheterization Laboratory and interventional cardiologist Dr Wesong Boko credited the use of AI, which made the otherwise complicated procedure very simple and lessened the normal procedure time of 1-2 hours down to less than an hour.

While unclear how many services at the hospital are being AI assisted, NBC News understands, gene Xpert testing including the cardiac team is now utilizing this technology.