A heart has to take a lot. Almost all the time, it is a thankless job if you will think about it. Whatever the situation, the human heart remains under immense pressure forever. A lifelong pumping station, it has to manage oxygenating and deoxygenating blood supply amidst fluctuating blood pressure. The human body engages in excruciating activities and must work overtime to increase blood supply. Whenever relaxing, it has to normalize the BP to steady the breathing. Sometimes, all these relaxing and excruciating activities happen simultaneously, contracting and expanding the heart’s muscles instantaneously.

Modern lifestyle has taken adverse situations like hypertension, stress, physical activity, inactivity, fat saturation, and unsaturation to extremes like never before. That is why you often hear, read in the news, and learn about person/s with their heart under cardiac arrest. Every time they are rushed to the hospital, their survival chances increase tenfold if they find that Dr Madan Mohan B is at the other side of the treatment table, treating them.

A renowned interventional cardiologist with more than 20 years of experience, Dr Madan Mohan is a Senior Consultant in MGM Healthcare, Chennai’s Department of Cardiology. This Madras Medical College alumnus specializes in performing interventional cardiology procedures like primary and elective Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCIs). He has received training in using the Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) as destination therapy because of his particular interest in the Heart Failure Program.

Expanding the Heart Care

He played a key role in expanding the mechanical circulatory department at MGM Healthcare with high-end equipment that supports reviving heart failure. He informs that at MGM, they have laser angioplasty. When the block is severe, they use advanced laser angioplasty to open it up.

Professional qualification of Dr Madan Mohan includes

• MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery), 1986.
• MD (Doctor of Medicine), 1994.
• DM (Cardiology), 2002.

Dr Madan Mohan has done theses on the following.

• Risk factor analysis in patients with cerebrovascular accidents presenting acutely.,1997.
• Comparative assessment of Vascular Endothelial Function in athletes versus normal population by arterial elasticity index., 2005.
• Feasibility of routine Transradial Coronary Angiography and angioplasty in Indian patients., 2005.

In his compassionate professional career, he has been awarded,

• Best Doctor Award, 2013 – Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University.
• Distinguished Doctor Award, 2017 – ROTARY Club of Chennai Galaxy.
• Lifetime Achievement Award, 2023 – Lions International.

Reviving the Halted Heart

The scenario depicted earlier is very common for Dr Madan Mohan. In fact, he says that particularly heart attack and cardiogenic shock are the problems patients bring to the casualty, and most patients pass away if they arrive at the very last second. A severe heart attack causes most of the heart muscle to suffer and causes the pumping to slow down; this condition is known as cardiogenic shock. Most hospitals typically only can treat patients experiencing heart attacks and do not have the equipment to revive these last-minute patients. Intending to improve heart pumping, we treat many patients with cardiogenic shock while performing primary angioplasty. Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IAPP) is one of the cutting-edge devices that supports the blood supply to the heart’s blood vessels. Even if the blood vessels are blocked, the device will aid in opening them so that a normal blood supply can be created.

“Even if the heart completely stops, we have the ECMO facility to keep it beating. Our hospital has these kinds of micro-circulatory equipment. It allows us to save more patients when they seek our help, even at the last minute.”

Elaborating more about MGM’s offering and aspects that make it stand out in the cutthroat competition, Dr Madan Mohan shares that they carry out specific, intricate procedures to clear stern blocks from the heart’s blood vessels, and they have vascular imaging technologies that make it easier to find these blocks. They can determine the type of blockage by determining what deposits have clogged the blood vessels. They use intravascular ultrasound and OCT, another advanced imaging technology, to quantify the calcium and, in accordance, use machinery to break the calcium deposits, which are the primary cause of blocks most of the time. To open the vessel and insert the stent, they use Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) and Rotablation to chip away calcium. “Compared to our rivals, we undertake and complete these complex procedures in much greater quantities,” he adds.

Saving Hearts, Gaining Lives

Explaining the immersive benefits of Cardiac care offered by MGM to its patients, Dr Madan Mohan claims that they are the only facility in India with a team that has performed the most heart transplants, which is another significant advantage of their hospital. The best treatment for the heart during the waiting period for a heart transplant is an LVAD (Left Ventricle Assisted Device), which will be implanted below the heart to take over the pumping action. Heart failure is a significant cause of life loss.

At MGM, Dr Madan Mohan and his team perform CPR and extend EECPR, which combines CPR and ECMO, to revive the patient during cardiac arrest. They have a bi-plane lab; diabetic patients with high urea creatinine levels are not subjected to angiograms or angioplasty procedures because they use the bi-plane to conduct imaging from both sides, which minimizes radiation exposure and prevents renal damage.

Techno-Advanced Future Heartcare

Being an experienced leader, he shares his opinion on how adopting modern technologies like AI and ML impacts the Cardiology sector and how MGM is adapting to the change. The doctor says that combining AI with clinical practice improves patient care. Research has proved that applying AI algorithms to ECGs helps to detect anomalies with increased accuracy over the classic ECG LVH criteria. An undetected anomaly due to human error in interpretation and left untreated can lead to heart failure. It can be overcome using AI.

The pace of AI in disease detection is continuing to increase. Large medical record datasets are being cleaned and processed to help algorithms spot new patterns and correlations. Technology in medicine will encourage innovations, eliminate drawbacks, and create faster and more effective healthcare systems, making healthcare accessible to all.

According to Dr Madan Mohan, awareness of heart attack symptoms need to be improved among people. It is certainly a challenge people need to focus on.

In his advice to budding medical professionals who aspire to venture into the Healthcare industry and the students in the medical field, Doctor says to take up healthcare administration courses along with improving their practical medical knowledge. It will help them in the long term.

*MGM’s Hall of Fame: