Cardiac Consult: A Cleveland Clinic Podcast for Healthcare Professionals

Luke Laffin, MD, cardiologist in the Section of Preventive Cardiology at Cleveland Clinic discusses his recently published paper with Stephanie Besser, MSA, MSPA, and Francis Alenghat, MD, PhD, from the University of Chicago which dove into the results of the SPRINT and ACCORD-BP trials to answer the question if trial results looking at a specific population of patients can apply to specific patients in clinic. The team developed a tool to answer this question.

Steven Nissen, MD talks with Daniel Cantillon, MD, staff electrophysiologist and Medical Director for Cleveland Clinic’s Central Monitoring Unit about advanced approaches to telemetry monitoring for hospitalized patients. Dr. Cantillon leads a large central monitoring unit with sophisticated technology and risk stratification tools, triage algorithms and protocols and a well-trained staff. Dr. Cantillon and Dr. Nissen discuss the factors measured, what goes into the algorithms and how this type of technology can prevent emergency events – or allow for treatment before an emergency event occurs; as well as hopes for future technology and research.

Dr. Venu Menon, Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program talks with Dr. Anirudh Kumar, a second year cardiovascular fellow about his recent research related to two high risk populations of STEMI patients, those with cardiogenic shock and those who present with cardiac arrest who underwent PCI. The findings were shared related to short and long-term outcomes in these two patient populations. In addition, he describes how and if new STEMI protocols had an impact on these high risk patients.

Eric Roselli, MD, Director of the Aorta Center at Cleveland Clinic leads the discussion on treatment of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) disease. Joanna Ghobrial, MD discusses family screening; Leonardo Rodriguez, MD reviews clinical presentation; Milind Desai, M D discusses imaging; Douglas Johnston, MD covers valve choice in the young patient; Amar Krishnaswamy, MD & Samir Kapadia, MD covers patient candidates for TAVR and valve-in-valve; and finally Vidyasagar Kalahasti, MD discusses connective tissue disorders in bicuspid aortic valve disease. After listening, join us for the Tall Rounds® presentation on Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease.

Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Milind Desai discusses a paper published in JACC Imaging studying 865 patients who underwent aortic valve surgery with severe aortic regurgitation. Baseline ejection fraction and LV strain were studied pre-procedure and post procedure to look at the impact of these values and overall mortality. Dr. Desai discusses the findings of the study and implications for future evaluation of patients with aortic regurgitation. The study can be reviewed in JACC Imaging.

Dr. Lars Svensson, Chairman of the Sydell and Arnold Miller Heart and Vascular Institute discusses a recently published paper with Dr. Milind Desai, Medical Director of the Aorta Center, looking at a series of 491 Marfan Syndrome (MFS) patients who presented for both emergent and/or prophylactic aorta surgery. Dr. Svensson provides a review of the MFS guidelines regarding when to operate. Dr. Desai explains multi-modality imaging including echo, MRI and CT scan when determining timing for surgery. The findings of the study are reviewed as well as implications for future care of patients with MFS. Read the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and learn more about Marfan syndrome at the Marfan Foundation.

In honor of Heart Failure Awareness Week, Steven Nissen, MD, Chairman of the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic talks with Randall Starling, MD, MPH, President of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) and Jerry Estep, MD, Section Head of Heart Failure at Cleveland Clinic about what we need to know about heart failure – whether a patient or provider; including the extent that heart failure affects us, treatment options – from medications – to the newest devices and transplant, and differences in causes and/or presentation based on gender and race.

Dr. Steven Nissen discusses talks with Jerry Estep, MD, Section Head, Heart Failure and Transplantation and Edward Soltesz, MD, Surgical Director of the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure and Recovery about innovations in heart failure surgery, including changes in LVAD therapy and heart transplant making an impact on patient outcomes, when patients should be referred for advanced heart failure therapy, LVAD back-up strategies for traditional cardiac surgery, the newest medications and when to prescribe, and the new technologies for pulmonary pressure monitoring.

Dr. Steven Nissen discusses talks with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Tushman, and Cleveland Clinic cardiologists Dr. Samir Kapadia, Section Head, Interventional Cardiology, and Dr. Grant Reed, authors of a recently published paper focused on operational efficiency in the cath lab. They provide guidance on how to deliver high quality care in a cost effective manner.

Steven Nissen, MD discusses with Christine Jellis, MD, PhD the wide array of multi-modality imaging including the various types nuclear, echo, CT and MRI testing; the advantages and best use cases of each and how to manage special populations.