Collaborated with Japan’s cardiovascular experts, TSPI vowed to “let patient amputation be history”, creating peripheral intervention guidelines tailored for Asian patients
 

TSPI founder Dr. Chung-Ho Hsu (fifth from the left, front row), who leads the peripheral vascular disease section in the cardiovascular medicine division at China Medical University Hospital (Taiwan), is dedicated to establishing a significant global footprint in peripheral vascular medicine. He plans to achieve this by introducing Asia's leading cardiovascular intervention techniques and expertise.

      The first academic organization of peripheral vascular in Taiwan, Taiwan Society of Peripheral Interventions (TSPI), recently has been founded last year in 2023. Dr. Chung-Ho Hsu, director of the section of peripheral vascular disease, division of cardiovascular medicine, department of internal medicine at China Medical University Hospital (Taiwan), is the leading initiator and elected as the chairman of TSPI, Dr. Hsu pointed out that the collaborative effort in data exchange between Japanese Endovascular Therapy (JET) and TSPI help create peripheral intervention guidelines tailored for Asian patients.

      “Japan and Taiwan share similarities in social structure and genetic composition: both have developed into an aged society and show high diabetes prevalence. These are public health issues of special interest among Japanese medical professionals.” Osamu Iida, former Chairman of JET, stated, “JET will collaborate with TSPI in data exchange and treatment improvement, with the ultimate goal of disease prevention and better peripheral vascular health for both populations.”

      The primary goal is to nourish the expertise of healthcare professionals, facilitate the development of peripheral vascular medicine as a specialty, and provide best treatments and care to patients through continued education in the form of academic activities and seminars. By leveraging the influence of renowned medical experts worldwide, leading Asian cardiovascular interventional treatment techniques and knowledge are introduced.

      Dr. Hsu stated that peripheral vascular disease has been long overlooked by Taiwanese healthcare professionals. The clinical data of acute arterial obstruction suggests that delayed diagnosis and treatment leads to an amputation rate of 30%, and a mortality rate of 30%. Seventy percent of acute arterial obstruction cases were caused by atrial fibrillation. Some patients may experience sudden numbness, pain, coldness or weakness of lower limbs, but the underlying cause remained undetermined despite visiting numerous specialties and eventually amputation became inevitable. Such a fate, however, can be prevented by early discovery of the problem and intervention to restore vascular patency.

      According to Dr. Juey-Jen Hwang, former Superintendent of National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch and the distinguished cardiovascular intervention expert and researcher, the Taiwanese population has poor carbohydrate metabolism, making them more susceptible to diabetes. Diabetic patients are suggested to receive annual monitoring of ankle-brachial index (ABI) to keep track of their arterial health in lower limbs and maintain overall peripheral circulation.

      TSPI was founded with the effort of Dr. Hsu, and it included cardiologists/cardiac surgeons, radiologists, radiation technologists, and nurses with well versed in peripheral intervention and researches. The physicians shared the same view to address the shortage of peripheral vascular examination staff, which has long remained an unmet need in the healthcare system and led to poor diagnostic efficiency. Dr. Hsu hoped that “this will help medical experts make timely diagnoses and treatments readily available, and keep patients away from amputation.”

      The society will drive the improvement of this specialty, and raise the awareness of the general public and other specialists alike in peripheral vascular diseases. Based on TSPI, courses and video clips will be arranged to improve the awareness of peripheral vascular disease, train specialists and peripheral vascular ultrasound technologists, and arrange demonstrative operations to further improve the precision of the intervention taken by specialists.

      In the future, there will also be a continuous introduction of new peripheral arterial drug-coated balloons, drug-eluting stents, atherosclerotic plaque removers, acute thrombolytic and thrombectomy instruments, etc. TSPI will promote new surgical techniques, including electrocautery for renovascular hypertension, non-surgical prostate treatment, and minimally invasive penile artery surgeries for male patients, and the applications of cell therapy in lower limb arteries. TSPI calls for everyone's joint effort to contribute to the development of peripheral vascular medicine.

Related news from AP News: https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-newswire/taiwan-vascular-disease-c9dbedfa7f27dd9dfc4e367dc318d473