Doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, would soon be able to detect mental disorders, cancer and infertility problems caused by hereditary factors.
Karyotyping, the machine that carries out necessary tests, would be installed at the premier health hub within two days. Pathology and lab medicine department head A.K. Saxena shared this information on Thursday. “We have bought karotyping machine (evaluates size, shape and chromosome count in cell samples) at Rs 25 lakh from Japan’s Olympus Corporation. It would be installed in the hospital within two days. There are certain diseases caused by hereditary factors, which the machine helps diagnose,” said Saxena.
Karyotyping machine is not available in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, but only in few hospitals of the country, including AIIMS-Delhi, Tata Medical Centre, Calcutta, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, among others.
Sources said a few state-of-the-art machines recently arrived at the pathology and lab medicine department of AIIMS-Patna, which was a new initiative in the state. The hospital also got a spectrophotometer worth Rs 7 lakh (an equipment which helps in the detection of DNA/RNA and protein) and polymerase chain reaction machine worth around Rs 14 lakh (a machine which gives complete expression of the gene).
Saxena said: “We would start our genetic lab on November 25. All these machines are very important for our lab, as they can detect genetic abnormalities, which, otherwise, cannot be detected through other tests easily.”
Sources said AIIMS had initiated the process of purchasing other equipment such as laparoscope and echo machine. While laparoscope is used in laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive surgery used to treat digestive disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, echo machine is used for echocardiogram test to get a clear picture of the heart.
Sources said during Union health minister Harsh Vardhan’s visit to AIIMS-Patna in June, he asked the administration to buy few equipment on its own as the company assigned to procure the equipment was taking time to buy the equipment. The health minister has set a deadline to start full-fledged services at AIIMS-Patna by December 25, the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
