HEALTH

‘Careful diagnosis of glaucoma vital’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 19 — About 30 to 50 per cent of the patients may not show any sign of glaucoma on casual examination. Therefore a careful clinical examination is essential to detect these cases before it is too late. On the concluding day of the tenth annual conference of the Glaucoma Society of India, here today, Dr Ramanjit Sihota from AIIMS, reviewed the filtration surgery techniques and measures to enhance their success in glaucoma patients. The conference was organised by the Ophthalmology Department of the PGI.

Dr Kishnadas from Madurai emphasised that patients having glaucoma and cataract may need combined surgery. Dr S.S. Pandav from the PGI while stressing that laser iridotomy is effective in angle closure glaucoma also deliberated upon artificial drainage devices in complicated cases of advanced glaucoma. Dr B. Shanta from Chennai described the management strategies of extremely low intraocular pressure following filtering surgical procedures.

A panel of experts, including Prof Ravi Thomas from Vellore, Dr G. Chandresekhar from Hyderabad, Dr L. Vijaya, Dr Krishnadas from Chennai and Dr Devinder Sood from New Delhi, deliberated about diagnosis and management of glaucoma. Since glaucoma always progresses slowly over a long period of time, the need for a regular examination and treatment was stressed upon.

The specialists said the treatment may have to be modified from time to time to prevent blindness. Moreover, since drugs used to control glaucoma have serious side effects, doctors should take extra care while prescribing them. Dr J.P. Muliyil from Vellore talked about the evidence based management of the disease.

Later, in an interactive session management panelists including Dr Ramnajit Sihota, Dr Krishnadas, Dr Andrew Braganza, Dr Usha Raina and others discussed the diagnosis and management of low pressure or normotensive glaucoma. In such patients, damage occurs even when the intraocular pressure is within normal limits. Patients suffering from this type of glaucoma need to be examined for neurological or cardiovascular disorders.

With a large number of intraocular pressure lowering medicines available in the market, specialists stressed on judicious and timely use of these medicines .

In today’s session, 20 scientific papers, including eight posters, were also presented in the free- paper session today. Dr Padma Paul from the Schell Eye Hospital, CMC, Vellore, was awarded the best paper award for her study based on “ comparison of standard full threshold with the SITA strategy”. 

Cardiologist dead
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 19 — Prof P.S. Bidwai, a former head of the Cardiology Department, PGI and a cardiologist of international repute, died in Nagpur yesterday. He is credited with starting a special paediatric cardiology clinic for children suffering from heart diseases. During his tenure at the PGI, as many as 50,000 children benefitted from this clinic. The clinic still runs on Wednesday afternoons. After he retired from the institute, he continued with his service for the heart patients at the Central India Institute of Cardiology in Nagpur.

Prof Bidwai is survived by his wife, Dr Pushpa Bidwai, and his two children, Dr Ashok Bidwai and Dr Meena both of whom are settled abroad. Dr Pushpa Bidwai, retired from the Biophysics Department in Panjab University.

Prof S.K. Sharma, Director, PGI, expressed his shock at the passing away of the world famous cardiologist, here today. Faculty and staff of the PGI is holding a condolence meeting in his memory tomorrow.

SPORT

SPS-41 win ball badminton championship
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Nov 19 — Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, bagged titles in both boys' and girls' sections of the 2nd UT Mini State Ball Badminton Championship which concluded here today at Guru Harkishan Public School, Sector 40. Mr Harbhushan Gulati, President of the Chandigarh Ball Badminton Association gave away the prizes. Results: Boys — SPS-41 b Government High School, Sector 41, 29-17, 29-19; and GHPS-40 b MDAV-22 , 29-13, 29-14, for third place. Girls — SPS-41 b GHS-41, 29-10, 29-16; and Government Model High School, Sector 36 b GHKS-40 , 29-25, 27-29, 29-5, for third place. 

Gurteshwar Singh of Guru Harkishan Public school, Sector 40, was adjudged the best player among boys, while Jagdeep Kaur of Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, was adjudged best player among girls. JAL Cup cricket Godrej Cricket Club defeated Mohali Gymkhana Club by six wickets in the final of the 5th JAL Cup league cricket tournament held at the Cricket Stadium, Sector 16,here today. The tournament was organised by the Chandigarh Sports Club.Mohali Gymkhana won the toss and opted to bat first. Ubaid Kamal and Narinder Kwatra opened the innings for Mohali Gymkhana. They were able to score 113 runs in 31.3 overs. Munish Arora made unbeaten 47 runs. In reply, Godrej Cricket Club achieved the target in 29.3 overs with six wickets in hand. 

Dr Ravinder Chadha, former Physiotherapist of the Indian cricket team was the chief guest. The tournament was sponsored by M\s Jupiter Aqualines Limited. Roller skatingHansraj Club ruled the roller hockey arena in the 6th Panchkula District Roller Skating Championship which concluded here today at Blue Bird School, Panchkula. Gautam also of HPS Club won the first place in road race, while Navdeep Puri also of HPS Club and Vishal Mor of Blue Bird Club got third place. Results: Roller hockey (8-12 years); boys—Hansraj Club b Blue Bird Club, 3-2; girls— Blue Bird Club b HPS Club, 2-1; (12-16 years); girls — HPS Club b Blue Bird Club, 9-0; boys(final) — HPS b Manav Mangal Club, 8-0; (above 16) boys — HPS b Roller Hawks Club, 8-1. Roadraces: (12-14 years) boys — Sahil (HPS) 1, Karan Bhalla (MM-11) 2, Varun Sharma (BBC) 3. girls — Rajni (BBC) 1, Anuradha (BBC) 2, Shulabh (BBC) 3. 8-10 years — Shamit (BBC) 1, Achal( HPS) 2, Saurav (BBC) 3.Billiards meet In the 17th NK Duggal Memorial Chandigarh State Senior and Junior Billiards and Snooker Championship, Aman Bhasin defeated Anandit Joshi in a tough match, 122-115. In a junior snooker match, Rajan Aggarwal defeated Honey Bansi , 3-2.

Honing their skills on golf range
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 19 — Roshni shuffles her feet, lifts her club and swings it. The drive sends the ball shooting up. The ball lands a little beyond the white flag. She goes through the exercise again, executing a better drive this time. The exercise continues as Roshni and three other golfers practice their swings at the driving range of the CGA. The distances covered by the balls can be judged by the flags put up at intervals of 50 yards (white), 100 yards (green) and 150 yards (saffron). The last flag is 250 yards away.

The entire stretch of the driving range is littered with white balls. These balls will be picked up when the golfers take a small break. Standing next to The Tribune team is Mr D.P. Azad, Dronacharya Award winner and President of the CGA Golf Range. Golfers can get golf sets and balls from the range after paying a nominal sum. A coach is always available to help the golfers perfect their skills. Even if a ball goes over the high wire mesh, the CGA will bear the loss.

The second phase of the driving range is coming up. From there, we see the golfers move towards the putting and chipping green. The lush bermuda grass stands out. A ball lands in a bunker. This is another stroke that the golfers need to practice. Four to 10 strokes later, they show some improvement in their shots. As the golfers continue their practice, Mr Azad talks about the 18-hole miniature golf range that will form a ring around the range. Fun golf, as he calls it, will be the first of its kind in India. “It will be the right place for the children in the open, away from computers,” said Mr Azad.

The putting green will have lights and the person who is bringing this change here is none else than Kapil Dev. Mr Azad hopes that the lights will be put up soon. This will enable golfers to practice their putting and chipping even after the sunset.

There is also a fully-equipped academy on the golf range, where the coach is none other than Col Nirmal Singh. The Germany-trained coach trains an 11-year-old to a 65-year-old. Col Nirmal Singh is satisfied with the coaching methods at the academy. The Manager of the Golf Range, Col T.S. Rohewal, excuses himself once more time to be with the players and chips and putts himself.

The other person behind the range, Mr C.S. R. Reddy, is nowhere to be seen. We are told that he has gone to bring some surprise equipment for the range. A grapewine tells us that it is probably ball-picking machines.

Our trip around the range is over and we move towards the office of the President of the CGA. There we meet one of the golfers, Roshni. She says that she visits the range whenever she is in Chandigarh. She says that the Delhi Golf Club is too crowded. “This club has the right ambience for sharpening a player’s skills,” she says.

In his office, Mr Azad talks about the facilities that are coming up. “We still have a long way to go. A gazebo is coming up and soon the range will also have a club house. I am finding it difficult to accept any more membership applications. The waiting list is going up,” Mr Azad says. Sitting next to him is Mr Jagdeep Singh Cheema, Senior Vice-President of the range. As we leave, we see a big statue of a golfer in action — just the right thing to get you moving.