JEDDAH, 7 October 2004 — Jeddah is to host the second annual conference on adult congenital heart disease, a condition that affects millions worldwide. The focus of the two-day conference and symposium on Oct. 12-13 is on adult congenital heart diseases — conditions that children have not had treated in early life and now present in adulthood.
Pediatric cardiology, adult cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery are well established disciplines in Saudi Arabia. “Adult congenital heart disease is the fourth and emerging branch,” said Professor Muhammad Omar Galal, a consultant in pediatric cardiology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah.
The conference was devised by Chairman of Cardiovascular Disease Dr. Nasser Mahdi at KFSH as a means of serving this largely invisible section of the community with adult congenital heart disease.
“The Kingdom has many remote areas with no easy access to specialist care,” explained Professor Galal. “Some children grew up with congenital heart disease and nobody knew what was wrong with them.”
When tertiary care in the form of clinics and hospitals reached their areas, the children were adults with a condition that they have been carrying for 15 years or so and which could have been treated.
“It’s a new risk, new procedure and a new area in Saudi Arabia that developed from lack of awareness by the patients and the lack of access to care.”
In the developed countries, this subset of patients is well served and has been for the last 20 years. Canada (Toronto) especially and the UK (Brompton Hospital) are world leaders in the area. “We have very good relations with these centers,” said Professor Galal, “and they helped us in setting up the unit in the hospital and encouraged us to organize the conference.”
The success of the first conference encouraged Professor Galal — also an MBA in Hospital Management — with his team to organize the second.
Confirmed speakers are internationally known figures from Europe, US, Asia and other Arab countries — as well as local experts. “We have 20 invited speakers from Germany, Malaysia, the US and Jordan, Egypt and Morocco,” said Professor Galal. “The conference is open to all interested medical professionals, but we expect a particularly strong representation by Saudi specialists.”
The theme of this year’s conference is treatment of the condition. Four sessions in two days — one topic in each — will accommodate all levels of medical expertise from advanced student to consultants. “To keep the delegates focused, we selected just four diseases out of hundreds.”
Incidence of adult congenital heart disease worldwide is one percent of all live births. It is not the most frequent congenital disease or abnormality, but it is the most deadly among the congenital abnormalities.
