Recently, at the Telemedicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, a Chinese doctor and a Danish patient conducted a "remote consultation" in English for more than 1 hour with the help of the Internet. The patient has been seeking medical treatment for many years because of difficult diseases, and through this "remote consultation", he finally found the answer here in Professor Li Qi of the Department of Neurology of the First Hospital of Heavy Medical Hospital.
Photo by Gong Xiaoqian
In January this year, Professor Li Qi of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Heavy Medical College received an email from Denmark about the rare disease "vertebral artery compression syndrome" that he had proposed a few years ago. After reading the email in detail, he learned that the Danish patient named Sebrina had not yet received a definitive diagnosis after seeking medical treatment in Denmark, Germany, France and other European countries, and his condition gradually worsened.
Neurologists in France considered The disease of Sabrina as the "vertebral artery compression syndrome" proposed by Professor Li Qi. In order to confirm the diagnosis and further treatment, Sebrina decided to consult the proposer of the disease in the form of an e-mail, Professor Li Qi. Due to the epidemic situation, Sabrina could not come to Chongqing for treatment, and she hoped to get Professor Li Qi's diagnosis and treatment through the Internet and pay for it. After Li Qi learned about it, she decided to "remote consultation" for her free. Prior to this, Professor Li Qi had received many letters and requests from patients and scholars in the United States, Australia, India and other countries, and helped many patients like Sabrina.
Through the Network, Professor Li Qi conducted a detailed consultation with Sabrina, carefully read the patient's original image image, and examined Sabrina in the form of video, patiently combing the medical history, interpreting the imaging results, and proposing a treatment plan for Sebrina.
After the consultation, Sabrina mentioned that she was infected with the new crown pneumonia virus, and her family members were unfortunately infected. Professor Li Qi briefly introduced China's achievements and experience in fighting the new crown pneumonia virus to her, and told her not to go out, wishing her and her family a speedy recovery. Sabrina repeatedly thanked Professor Li Qi for his help, and said that after recovery, she would personally come to China to thank Professor Li Qi if conditions permitted.
It is understood that many years ago, Professor Li Qi accidentally found that some patients had clinical symptoms such as dizziness, balance disorders, and progressive limb weakness in clinical work, but they could not be explained by common diseases. In order to make this rare disease correctly understood, Professor Li Qi continued to study this type of patient, spent several years collecting and sorting out case data, repeatedly viewing the patient's skull image, proposing and naming a rare cerebrovascular disease in the world - "Vertebral Artery Compression Syndrome (VACS)" and formulating clinical diagnostic criteria, which was officially published in the international journal of neurology "Frontiers of Neurology" in 2019, laying the foundation for the early identification, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. After the "vertebral artery compression syndrome" was proposed, the relevant articles were widely read and studied by scholars at home and abroad, and were studied by physicians in China, the United States, Japan, Indonesia and other countries and published SCI articles and applied to the clinic, and have been read and downloaded more than 27,000 times.
As an important differential diagnosis of "vertigo", "vertebral artery compression syndrome" has been written by Harvard University experts in the internationally renowned monograph "Neuro emergency decision-making program" published by Springer Press, providing ideas for the work of clinicians. Some Chinese physicians read the article, diagnosed patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as the disease, and published SCI articles internationally, laying a foundation for the continued exploration and treatment of the disease.
Professor Li Qi said: "Medical research is a long-term and difficult exploration process, especially for rare cerebrovascular diseases, but if more doctors can recognize the disease and carry out early and correct treatment, patients can benefit, and no matter how hard and hard it is, it is worth it." Li Qi hopes that more doctors will understand "vertebral artery compression syndrome", reduce missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, and let more patients get timely and effective diagnosis and treatment. (China Daily Chongqing Reporter Station)