HK to Host Int'l Echocardiography Conference

The 16th Echo in Context Teleconference, an annual echocardiography event, will for the first time be hosted by Hong Kong on March 4, organizers said Friday.

Under the theme of "Chest Pain in Children and Adults," the conference will provide a platform for world-renowned cardiologists to share the latest medical information and diagnostic methods on heart diseases.

"Given the commonness and vagueness of chest pain, one of the major concerns of cardiologists worldwide is to find an accurate and reliable method to diagnose heart disease," said Joseph Kisslo, program director of the conference.

The conference will be broadcast live from Hong Kong to nearly 40 cities across Asia Pacific, including 27 cities in the Chinese mainland, reaching more than 3,000 cardiologists, sonographers and medical practitioners.

Heart diseases in about 10 years will replace infectious disease, cancer and other disorder to become human's biggest killer, according to the World Health Organization.

In Hong Kong, more than 6,000 people a year are admitted to hospitals with heart failure, and the figure is rapidly rising due to an aging population, unhealthy lifestyle and lack of exercise, experts said.






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