JEDDAH, 6 July 2005 — The Third International Radiology Symposium was held last week at the Saudi German Hospitals Group in Jeddah. The Conference emphasized the importance of early diagnosis in the treatment of cerebral stroke.
Dr. Samir Lingawy, the deputy manager of Health Affairs in the Western Region, presented the latest advancements in the neuro-imaging of heads and necks.
After Dr. Lingawy’s presentation was followed by a speech by Eng. Sobhi Batterjee, the president of Saudi German Hospitals Group. Dr. Batterjee explained that the private sector does not have the sole aim to profit.
“The private sector share responsibility with governments in different ways — including health — and in making nations and governments come together.
A great example is the Saudi German Hospital in Yemen supported by the Saudi Government”, he said.
Courses and medical sessions presented nearly 200 attendees with an opportunity to be informed and to discuss medical research.
Prof. Mahmoud Mafee, the head of International Radiology Association and president of Radiology Department, Illinois University, USA, discussed the early diagnosis of tumours in the petrous bone through high-resolution C.T. and imaging of the orbit by 3-dimensional technique.
Drs Ismail Ibrahim and Khaled Abdel Hamid, both members of the organizing committee announced a special scoop on the recent advances of MRI in the brain cell function characterization.
They jointly explained that this was connected to the installation of the most recent MRI in the Middle East, in Saudi German Hospital, Jeddah.
Dr. Alaa El-Sherif, the head of the organizing committee and head of Jeddah’s Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department (SGHG), stated that the role of radiology is not merely diagnosis but treatment as well.
Dr. El-Sherif gave the example of diagnostic and interventional cerebral angiography in detecting and occluding the feeding branches of cerebral tumours.
This procedure helps the neuro-surgeon to remove the tumour without bleeding. “It also helps in the occluding of cerebral aneurysms by injecting certain substances or coils which help improving the results by more than 80%”, Dr. El-Sherif said.
Recommendations from the doctors summarised and closed the conference. They recommended early diagnosis of acute cerebral strokes and immediate referral to radiology departments.
The doctors also encouraged regular international symposia to determine the priorities of imaging modalities in the radiological sub-specialty brain imaging.
The last recommendation given was to keep up-to-date with regular radiological research programs.
