The other day, Commonwealth Youth Games silver medallist, Sikki Reddy was searching for a doctor who could diagnose problem in her knees. The gifted shuttler is just one of the many athletes from Andhra Pradesh who are not even aware of the availability of quality treatment to take care of recurring problems with knees, wrist and joints.
This may be the a thing of the past, with Dr. M.C. Balaji Reddy, in association with his partner Dr. K. Srinivas, taking special interest to cater to this category. Dr. Reddy being a sports-lover himself has impored the US-manufactured ONI 1.5 Tesla Joint MRI costing Rs. 2.5 crores for the joints and installed it at Focus Diagnostics in the City.
Incidentally, Dr. Balaji says that this is the first of its kind in South Asia and should go a long way to help doctors diagnose to the smallest details the actual problems with most sports-related injuries.
Giving the details, Dr. Balaji says that unlike the conventional MRI scanning equipment, this state-of-the-art machinery ensures there are no tunnels and no claustrophobia and any patient can just step into the room and relax in an easy chair and undergo the scan. “Earlier, there was no proper imaging to see the small joints. The treatment was not targeted. The athletes are prone to injuries to small joints which can be seen clearly in this scan. This technology prevents disability and underperformance if detected early,” he explains. “In a way any athlete with even the most painful injury can avail this technology in a comfort zone. For instance, when we are scanning a person with elbow, wrist joint problems they have to lie down in awkward (free-style swimming position) for 40 minutes. In this case, you can just sit and get the scan done with ease,” Dr. Balaji says.
“Obviously, though this is a big boon to the athletes, and at the same time it is not that it is out of bounds for general patients. We believe that Hyderabad will be given its pride of place in this latest technology for not even the biggest centres have ventured into this area till now,” Dr. Balaji remarks.
