EDITOR'S PAGE

AT A GLANCE

This issue of Heart Views features the use of advanced and sophisticated technology to diagnose and treat cardiac diseases. Robotic surgery is a reality.
Ismeno et al discuss the clinical applications and advantages of robotic heart surgery as well as their experience in their institution (p.93).
The devices allow beating-heart procedures to be performed through small thoracic incisions.
It may soon be possible to discharge patients one day after a cardiac bypass operation.
Nearly bloodless and precise, robosurgery makes some of today's standard operations seem quaint and crude.
However, such robotic devices do not replace a surgeon's skills.
Coronary angiography is still the gold standard in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.
Although the procedure is safe with minimal risk, it is an invasive procedure and it is expensive.
Non-invasive imaging of the coronary arteries is still a dream.
Among the non-invasive imaging modalities used in ischemic heart disease, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) promises to visualize the major coronary arteries, using newly developed MR angiographic techniques.
Wang and Sostman review in detail the development, progress, and limitations associated with this new technology (p.98).
Perioperative myocardial infarction occurs in two to four percent of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG).
It is usually attributed to poor distal perfusion after grafting of the more proximal arteries has been performed. Therefore, assessment of distal graft anastomosis is of extreme importance. Haaverstad and Vitale discuss the use of epicardial color-Doppler ultrasound as a novel tool to assesss coronary stenoses and graft anastomoses intraoperatively (p.112). Approximately one-third of cases of heart failure are due primarily to diastolic dysfunction with systolic function being relatively normal.
Roelandt and Pozzoli stress the importance and the role of Doppler echocardiography in the evaluation of diastolic left ventricular dysfunction and estimation of left ventricular filling pressures in the management of patients with heart disease (p.116).
The Art and Medicine section (p.134) features the application of nanotechnology in the field of medicine by developing miniature supercomputers the size of a human cell, thus enabling us to manipulate biochemical processes at the molecular level.
This new technology will have a profound impact since it will change the practice of medicine, as we know it.
The History of Medicine section (p.127) takes us back to the roots of medicine, reminding us that no matter how technologically advanced and sophisticated the practice of medicine, the human interaction between doctor and patient is still essential to the healing process.
In the Special Section (Chairman’s Reflections), Dr. H.A. Hajar, narrates an interesting story of a unique medical and administrative problem that started in the 1970s in the Arabian Gulf, specially Qatar.

                                                                                 Rachel Hajar, MD