Health

A normal electrocardiogram (ECG) should not be interpreted as proof that the heart is free of disease, cardiovascular surgeon Dr Rahul Chandola said, stressing that while the test is an important diagnostic tool, it cannot by itself determine the overall health of the heart or identify blocked coronary arteries.  Dr Chandola, founder and managing director of the Institute of Heart Lungs Diseases Research Centre (IHLD), said many people mistakenly assume that a normal ECG rules out heart disease, leading them to ignore symptoms that require medical attention.  Drawing on his clinical experience, he said he had treated several patients who appeared healthy and physically active until shortly before suffering a heart attack.  "I have seen patients who ran several kilometres on the morning ...

Bengaluru doctors have successfully saved the life of a 57-year-old woman who came to the hospital with giddiness and a newly developed headache. While there were no obvious clinical signs of stroke or bleeding, the headache was unusual enough to warrant further evaluation leading to an MRI. The scan showed no evidence of a stroke but instead, it revealed an aneurysm located at a critical junction of blood vessels deep within the brain. Fortunately, the aneurysm had not ruptured.  For many people, headaches have become a part of daily life. Stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, long working hours and constant screen exposure are often blamed—and in most cases, rightly so. A painkiller, a cup of coffee or a few hours of rest usually bring relief. Why headaches should be taken seriously The...

Zydus Lifesciences on Tuesday said it has received final approval from the US health regulator for its generic version of indocyanine green for injection, an optical imaging agent indicated for fluorescence imaging. The final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) is for the abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for indocyanine green for injection of strength 25 mg/vial, a sterile lyophilised powder for reconstitution, Zydus Lifesciences Ltd said in a regulatory filing. Zydus said its indocyanine green for injection is a generic equivalent of the reference listed drug IC-Green by Diagnostic Green LLC. The USFDA has designated the application a competitive generic therapy (CGT), it added. According to the USFDA, the regulator may designate a drug as a CGT after determi...

The first 1,000 days of life—spanning from conception through a child's second birthday—represent a critical window of human growth and development. Every feed during this timeframe does far more than simply satisfy immediate hunger.  Breast milk is a living, bioactive fluid containing immune cells, beneficial bacteria, and over 200 distinct human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) that collaborate to build an infant's gut, immune system, and brain. Every year, World Breastfeeding Week 2026 is being observed from August 1 to 7 to highlight the role of breastfeeding in an infant’s life. As medical science deepens our understanding of early paediatric care, expert insight from Dr. Ravneet Joshi, consultant lactation specialist at Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road, Bengaluru, and Dr. Asmita Mahaj...

In a major advancement for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, a Mumbai-based doctor has published groundbreaking research that could help make a particular surgery more accurate, personalised and safer for thousands of patients around the world. The research in published in the internationally reputed, peer-reviewed journal Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, by Dr Paresh Doshi, director of Functional Neurosurgery at Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre has found that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery. The city-based hospital says it is among the first real-world clinical studies to validate a reliable method for accurately determining the orientation of directional Deep Brain Stimulation electrodes after surgery. What is the Deep Brain Stimulati...

A team of surgeons at Safdarjung Hospital have performed a robotic systemic atrioventricular (AV) valve replacement in an adult patient with a rare combination of congenital heart defects, marking a major milestone in robotic cardiac surgery. Hospital authorities claimed the surgery is the first reported case in medical literature in which a robotic system was adapted through a left-sided approach to replace a systemic AV valve in a patient with both congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) and dextrocardia. The minimally invasive procedure was carried out by the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), led by Professor Dr Anubhav Gupta, on an adult patient diagnosed with ccTGA along with dextrocardia, according to a statement issued by the hosp...

For many young adults, Hepatitis C feels like a disease from another era, or one associated only with extreme risk factors and older generations. It is rarely part of everyday health conversations. Unlike illnesses that announce themselves through visible symptoms, Hepatitis C often stays silent for years, quietly progressing in the background. That silence is precisely what makes it dangerous. Medical experts warn that many people continue to think Hepatitis C affects only injection drug users or individuals with obvious medical vulnerabilities. In reality, exposure can happen in ways that feel surprisingly ordinary, through unregulated tattoo studios, improperly sterilised cosmetic procedures, shared grooming tools, unsafe injections, or healthcare exposures that may have happened years...

The Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute (GCRI) has recorded a steady increase in lung cancer cases over the past five years, registering 4,830 patients between 2021 and 2025, as health authorities marked World Lung Cancer Day by urging people to quit tobacco and seek early screening.  According to figures released by GCRI, the institute treated 813 lung cancer patients in 2021, 865 in 2022, 933 in 2023, 1,086 in 2024 and 1,133 in 2025. Of the total patients registered during the five years, 3,931 (81.4 per cent) were men and 899 (18.6 per cent) were women. The awareness initiative was launched as the state government reiterated its commitment to providing treatment for serious illnesses, including cancer. The institute cited the GLOBOCAN 2022 report, which estimates that India records...

A baby girl born prematurely at just 860 grams and admitted in a critical condition to a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh has been discharged after nearly two months, with her weight rising to 1.4 kg, officials have said. Medical experts said babies born after a full-term pregnancy usually weigh between 2.5 kg and 3.5 kg. The baby was born at home on May 30 in the 25th week of pregnancy and was admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit of Ratlam district hospital around eight hours later in a critical condition, Civil Surgeon Dr A P Singh said on Thursday. "Babies born at 25 weeks of gestation with very low birth weight face a significantly higher risk of serious health complications," he said. Because of the premature birth, the baby's lungs were not fully developed and she had d...

A two-and-a-half-year-old child born with a rare congenital condition that left him without a functional oesophagus has begun eating through his mouth after undergoing a complex reconstructive procedure at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, marking another successful outcome for the hospital's paediatric surgery department, hospital officials said on Sunday. The child, Mantavya, son of Shailesh Patel of Sanand in Ahmedabad district, was born on November 7 in 2023, with Pure Oesophageal Atresia, a rare birth defect in which the two ends of the oesophagus are too far apart to form a continuous food pipe. Because of the condition, he was unable to swallow milk or food by mouth from birth. To save his life, surgeons performed an oesophagostomy, creating an opening in the neck, and a gastrostomy, inse...