Dr. Sherif al-Tobgy, head of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology, said that 80,000 patients die in Egypt every year of heart disease, which constitutes 22 percent of the total deaths in the country.
At the first workshop in Egypt about the treatment of coronary artery disease, Tobgy said that heart diseases are the leading cause of death in Egypt and all over the world, and that the coronary artery disease is the most prevalent. “Egyptians are more vulnerable to coronary artery disease,” he said. “They need stents.”
He added that 27 percent of Egyptians suffer from high blood pressure.
Society Vice President Ahmed Nassar, former dean of medicine at Ain Shams University, talked about a new “dissolving stent” that keeps the artery open, thereby increasing blood flow and oxygen to the heart. “The body then absorbs the stent, which dissolves within two years,” he explained.
“This technique will be applied in the hospitals of the Health Ministry in a few months,” he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
