LAHORE: Former premier Nawaz Sharif required ‘aggressive medication’ and ‘regular medical follow-ups’ to avoid cardiac complications, suggest his medical tests.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif was taken to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on Tuesday for his medical examination on the recommendation of a three-member special medical board.

“According to Mr Sharif’s medical tests (conducted on Tuesday), his condition is not serious. But, he needs aggressive medication and regular medical follow-ups to avoid cardiac complications,” a senior doctor told Dawn while quoting Mr Sharif’s medical report. He said Mr Sharif’s medical management would continue and his angiography might also be conducted.

Undergoes examination at the PIC

Mr Sharif’s stress thalium test (which is a nuclear imaging test that shows how well blood flows into one’s heart) suggests “post stress LV pump/contraction 56 per cent which is almost normal.

The report says there is a mild reversible ischemia inferior, basal and inferolateral walls (inferiolateral implies that the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart, is damaged on the lower left wall). The doctor, however, did not term the condition serious.

Nawaz Sharif, who is serving seven-year imprisonment in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case in Kot Lakhpat Jail, was brought to the PIC in tight security. PML-N workers gathered outside the hospital and chanted slogans in favour of their leader when Mr Sharif was taken back to the jail.

Expressing concern about her father’s health, Maryam tweeted: “My only source of information on what is happening to my father is media only.”

Earlier, a special PIC board, comprising Prof Dr Shahid Hameed, Professor of Cardiology, (chairman), Dr Sajjad Ahmed, Associate Professor of Cardiology, and Dr Hamid Khalil, Assistant Professor of Cardiology, conducted tests of Mr Sharif in jail.

According to the board’s report, Sharif has vague symptoms of pain in both arms, particularly at night and numbness of toes.

It said: “Patient Nawaz Sharif, 69, is a known case of diabetes mellitus and hypertension for the last 10 years. He is also known case of Ischemic heart disease since 2001. He can walk 45 minutes without any significant symptoms. He denied any symptoms of dizziness, pre-syncope or syncope. His haemodynamics were also within normal limits. He is on dual antiplatelets, beta blocker, amlodipine, ARB’S and statins with anti-diabetics treatment.”

Mr Sharif, it says, underwent Coronary Angioplasty (PCI) twice in 2001 and 2017. “He also had open heart surgery twice in 2011 and 2016 (no medical record/documents are available for these above said procedures at the time of examination).

The board examined the patient with fresh ECG and limited available laboratory investigations,” the board says.

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has also shown concern at the health of his elder brother, asking the PTI government to provide best healthcare facilities to the three-time prime minister.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019