Day 2: 8th PSPC Biennial Convention in Review

The second day of the biennial convention opened with the plenary session on “Ctrl+Alt+Shift: The 2020 Pediatric Hypertension Guidelines (Pediatric Consensus Statements” by DR. AURELIA LEUS.  She talked on the guidelines spearheaded by the Philippine Heart Association and the Philippine Society of Hypertension in collaboration with experts of other fields. For pediatric hypertension, the taskforce working group was led by Dr. Leus with nine other pediatric cardiologists, 4 pediatric nephrologists, 2 pediatric endocrinologists and 1 pediatric neurologist.  Dr. Leus talked on the process of development of the clinical practice guidelines, definition, classification, diagnosis, work-up and management of hypertension in children. Statement 5 of the CPG stated that an aneroid non-mercury sphygmomanometer with an appropriate sized cuff is the recommended device for accurate BP measurements in children.

In the session on “Pediatric Cardiology Referrals II: Falling with your Heart or your Mind – Cardiogenic versus Neurogenic Syncope” , the speakers were DR. MARISSA B. LUKBAN  (Pediatric Neurologist) and DR. CECILIENNE S. ACOSTA (Pediatric Cardiologist).  Dr. Lukban discussed the neurologic causes of syncope, including the work-up and management while Dr. Acosta tackled the cardiac causes which usually are arrhythmogenic in origin.  The open forum was well-moderated by DR. MARIA SHELAH SALAYA-RUFFERT.

In the CME Educational Grant (Vizcarra), DR. REGENTE I. LAPAK talked on the role of IVIG in COVID-19 and MIS-C.  He gave an extensive discussion on COVID-19 in children and the new disease associated with it, MIS-C. DR. FRANCISCO REMOTIGUE, JR. was the moderator in this session.

The last session for the day was a panel discussion on “The Preterm PDA: Observe , Medicate, Occlude or Ligate”.  DR. JOSE B. SALAZAR (Neonatologist) talked on the hemodynamics of PDA in the premature neonate, DR. JEAN ANTONIO G. VILLAREAL (Pediatric Interventional Cardiologist) dealt with interventional procedures while DR. JAY ALAN E. JUNIO (Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery) tackled surgical closure of PDA. The discussion was moderated by DR. PAUL ANTHONY G. TAN.