Cardiac Consult: A Cleveland Clinic Podcast for Healthcare Professionals

Dr. Venu Menon, Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program and Section Head, Clinical Cardiology talks with Eoin Donnellen MD, a third year cardiovascular fellow about his recently published paper that looked at pre-ablation bariatric surgery and its impact on the recurrence of atrial fibrillation following atrial fibrillation ablation.

Dr. Steven Nissen, Chief Academic Officer, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute talks with Dr. Leslie Cho, Section Head Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation about LDL cholesterol and statin intolerance. They discuss the full range of options available and what is in the future for LDL management. Then, Dr. Nissen describes the latest Lipoprotein a (also called Lp (a)) – what it is, why it’s important and a new research trial addressing this new frontier in lipid management.

Dr. Lee Kirksey, Vascular Surgeon and Vice Chairman of Vascular Surgery talks with Dr. David Hardy, Department of Vascular Surgery and Dr. Tushar Vachharajany, Nephrology and Hypertension about the challenges of dialysis access. Topics include vascular access at Cleveland Clinic, what should go into the planning and implementation of vascular access, approaches to decrease catheter exposure, graft types, the multidisciplinary care of dialysis patients, many who have cardiovascular and kidney disease, challenges of management and care of patients who have urgent needs.

Jerome Adams, M.D., MPH, Surgeon General of the United States and Cleveland City Council Member Blaine Griffin joined five leading Cleveland Clinic physicians to discuss the opioid epidemic during the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute Grand Rounds.

Dr. Steven Nissen, Chief Academic Officer, Chief Academic Officer, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute talks about cardiomyopathy with Wilson Tang, MD, Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Clinical Genomics; Research Director, and staff cardiologist in the Section of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine – from the basics to the newest innovations. Types of cardiomyopathy, how genetic testing can play a role in clinical management of the patient with cardiomyopathy, and the latest drugs and new research are discussed.

Dr. Steven Nissen, Chief Academic Officer, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute talks with Dr. Amar Krishnaswamy interventionalist and expert in structural heart disease about procedures used to treat structural heart disease, such as MitraClip, paravalvular leak repair, PFO closure, and - we all know about transcather aortic valve replacement (TAVR), but what about transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR), tricuspid and pulmonic valves? Dr. Krishnaswamy describes the procedure, indications and outcomes.

Dr. Oussama Wazni, Section Head, Electrophysiology and Pacing at Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Dan Cantillon, Director of Research in Electrophysiology and Pacing discuss the highlights from the recent Heart Rhythm Society Meeting. Research discussed includes bariatric surgery and afib ablation; digital health in electrophysiology; central monitoring unit outcomes; HIS bundle CRT pacing and pulse field ablation.

Dr. Miriam Jacob discusses pulmonary hypertension with cardiac surgeon Dr. Michael Tong and pulmonologist Dr. Gustavo Heresi. Many topics are discussed including the complexity of evaluation and diagnosis, a review of the World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension recommendations and what this means for diagnosis thresholds, approaches to medical therapy, surgery for those who have chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA), and when lung transplant is considered. The pulmonary hypertension team approach at Cleveland Clinic is described as well as current research studies.

Dr. Amar Krishnaswamy, MD, FACC, Interventional Cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic describes factors that play a role in deciding if an adult patient should have a PFO closure, and considerations when deciding whether PFO closure is the right course of action.

Steven Nissen, MD, sits down with Marc Gillinov, MD, Chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Brian Griffin, MD, Section Head Cardiovascular Imaging to discuss the timing of heart surgery, one valve at a time – the differences between aortic and mitral valves and regurgitation and stenosis. Changes in diagnostic imaging techniques, surgical and interventional options, as well as looking at outcomes data have changed the way we look at these patients and timing of intervention.