Ranchi, March 16: Increase in systolic blood pressure is far more dangerous than rise in dyastolic blood pressure. It is responsible for most heart ailments among elderly people, said Suman Vardhan, a US-based heart surgeon.

She was speaking at Japicon 2003, a two-day medical conference organised by the Association of Physicians of India, Jharkhand chapter. The conference ended today. About 300 doctors from India and abroad attended the meet. The conference was the first of its kind in the capital.

On the first day, S.C. Manchanda, former professor and head of department, AIIMS, New Delhi, presented the latest treatment protocol for unstable Angina (chest pain). Lalit Kapoor of Ranchi shared his experience on bypass surgery. Dilip Jha from the city presented his paper on the treatment of high blood pressure in diabetic patients. S.K. Pal of Ranchi and S.N. Sharma of Rims debated the use of anti-diabetic drugs on non-diabetic persons in order to prevent the disease.

N.K. Singh of Dhanbad and S. Nandwani of Jamshedpur debated the Hormone Replacement Therapy after menopause. Rajeev Kumar Singh from UK spoke on non-epileptic seizure.

The second day started with a free paper session chaired by D.B. Pahalajani of Mumbai and R. M. Dhamija of New Delhi. Ashish Pandey presented his paper on malaria. Arnab Bandopadhay discussed multi-organ dsyfunction in severe cases of malaria. Dipanjan Panda spoke on the clinical forms of tuberculosis.