Cardiac Consult: A Cleveland Clinic Podcast for Healthcare Professionals

Oussama Wazni, MD, Section Head, Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing and electrophysiologist Walid Saliba MD discuss atrial fibrillation stroke prevention, and the role of left atrial appendage occlusion: outcomes noted at Cleveland Clinic, what to do in patients that are unable to take Coumadin due to risk of bleeding, FDA indications, new technology available and the role of LAA occlusion in light of the newer anticoagulants.

Dr. Leslie Cho, Section Head, Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation and Director of Women’s Cardiovascular Center discusses tips for health care providers in treating statin intolerance. She covers common issues such as symptom management, medication choices, titration of meds, monitoring patients on statins, and the role of PCSK9 medications.

After the results of the COAPT trial were released, Dr. Kapadia, joined a panel of experts in imaging Dr. Griffin, heart failure Dr. Starling, heart surgery Dr. Mick, and structural intervention Dr. Krishnaswamy to discuss best practices in the treatment of functional mitral regurgitation in heart failure patients. Read more about key findings of the COAPT trial.

Dr. Erik Van Iterson, Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Cleveland Clinic describes the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation for various patient populations, current enrollment statistics, factors that play into enrollment, tips for health care providers, what is included in cardiac rehab and new trends in cardiac rehabilitation programming.

Dr. Faisal Bakaeen, Director of Cleveland Clinic's Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery Center discusses the findings of the ART trial. He provides an explanation of the findings and encourages tailoring the surgery to the patient. Use of multi-arterial coronary artery bypass grafts for the right patient can provide the best long term outcomes.

Dr. Mazen Hanna describes the findings of ATTR-ACT, a study aimed at the treatment of transthyretin (TTR) amyloid cardiomyopathy with the medication tafamadis. Those who were treated with the medication had reduced mortality, hospitalizations, and better functional capacity and quality of life. This is an exciting new breakthrough for patients with TTR amyloidosis.

Dr. Steven Nissen discusses the challenges of treating patients with pericarditis with Dr. Allan Klein, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Pericardial Disease Center – including medication management, monitoring with inflammatory markers and advanced therapies.

Dr. Steven Nissen, Dr. Sagar Kalahasti, Director of the Marfan & Connective Tissue Clinic and Dr. Eric Roselli, Director of the Aorta Center discuss the clinical care of patients with aortic disease (aneurysm and dissection), addressing testing, genetic evaluation, monitoring, when to operate, types of surgeries available, surgical outcomes and a life-long approach to treatment.

Dr. Luke Laffin, staff cardiologist in Preventive Cardiology and Clinical Specialist in Hypertension at Cleveland Clinic answers questions about hypertension management. He provides 5 main points clinicians need to know about fitting the hypertension guidelines into their daily practice and discusses tips for medication management, use of self-blood pressure monitoring and the role of lifestyle changes.

Oussama Wazni, MD, Section Head, Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing and Bruce Lindsay MD, past Section Head and past president of Heart Rhythm Society discusses the challenges and findings from the CABANA trial and its implications on future clinical practice, when to offer ablation vs. medical management.