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Ammon News - The 3rd Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Congress Middle East and North Africa (PCI MENA) opened in Amman on Thursday, bringing together 350 cardiologists from the MENA region and the United States.

The event is organized by the Interventional Cardiovascular Innovation Group (ICIG) in cooperation with the Jordan Cardiac Society and the United States' Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI).

During opening remarks, Minister of Health Firas Hawari said heart diseases are the leading cause of death in the Middle East and the world and are rapidly increasing in Arab countries due to high rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, and blood pressure issues, noting that interventional heart catheterization is a life-saving procedure in such cases.

Pointing to Jordan's achievements in medical fields, he said the Kingdom witnessed significant developments in cardiovascular interventions, while local doctors kept pace with developments and made quantitive leaps in heart disease diagnosis and treatment.

President of the ICIG Mahmoud Izraiq said the two-day conference will tackle cardiac interventions-related topics, such as stents and nets placement, valve replacement by non-surgical intervention, aortic surgeries, interventional radiology, adults' congenital disorders, and sudden causes of death.

The conference, he continued, will also tackle recent cardiac intervention studies, indicating that a preliminary study of cardiomyopathy and a new arterial tortuosity syndrome study will be presented during the gathering.

Fifty-seven speakers are partaking in the conference, in addition to 350 cardiologists, including 100 from the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Canada.

President of Jordan Cardiac Society Hatem Al Abbadi attributed Jordan's development in cardiology to the first heart center opened by the Jordanian Royal Medical Services in 1983. The center houses 6 operation rooms and 5 catheterization rooms and will soon have 214 beds, he indicated.

Abbadi said the center performs 40 to 50 catheterizations daily. Last year, it performed 15,000 catheterizations, 2,000 open-heart surgeries, and 95 transcatheter aortic valve implantation.