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Specialises in

• General cardiology

• Interventional cardiology

Offers

• Face-to-face consultations
• Video and telephone consultations

About me

I am an interventional cardiologist and academic in cardiovascular research based at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. I specialise in coronary artery disease, ANOCA (angina with non obstructive coronary arteries), acute coronary syndrome, interventional cardiology for both complex coronary and structural intervention, general cardiology and cholesterol/risk factor management for patients with coronary artery disease.

I have over 20 years of clinical cardiology experience and have undertaken consultant posts in London and Newcastle before being appointed in Cardiff over five years ago.

As a general cardiologist, I manage patients with coronary and valvular heart disease (chest pain, breathlessness and heart murmurs), heart rhythm disturbances (palpitations) and heart failure (breathlessness and swelling). As an interventional cardiologist, my expertise is in the minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

My major areas of expertise are the diagnosis and treatment of ischaemic heart disease (angina), including coronary angiography and complex coronary angioplasty, angina with non obstructive coronary arteries (ANOCA), which is a relatively common and under diagnosed condition in patients with chest pain.

I have expertise in both the diagnosis (with invasive and/or non-invasive testing) and ongoing management of this and conditions such as vasospastic angina (spasm of the coronary arteries) and microvascular angina (disease in the tiny blood vessels to the heart that cannot be seen with the naked eye during coronary angiography). I also diagnose and manage patients with acute coronary syndrome which will includes use of intravascular imaging and lipid (cholesterol) and risk factor management in patients with or without established coronary artery disease.

To date I have performed over 3,000 angioplasties, the majority performed via the wrist. I have expertise in the use of intravascular imaging, which is additional imaging with specialised equipment that is inserted in the blood vessel before and/or after stent implantation to ensure optimal stent expansion. This has recently been proven to lead to improved outcomes. I utilise both IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).

In my NHS Practice I am an experienced structural operator undertaking transaortic valve implantation (TAVI) for aortic stenosis. TAVI is a way of replacing the existing diseased aortic valve with a new tissue valve, thereby improving how the heart works without the need for open heart surgery. I lead the percutaneous foramen oval (PFO) closure service at University Hospital of Wales for cryptogenic stroke.

I continue to research complex coronary disease. I have designed and served as a steering committee member in the practice changing international SYNTAX II which sought to improve the assessment of risk in patients with complex coronary artery disease. This allowed doctors and patients to improve decision making between drug eluting stents and coronary artery bypass surgery based on improving long term outcomes. I am currently in the process of setting up a randomised controlled trial at the University Hospital of Wales in the acute management of heart attacks.

I am widely published in most of the major peer reviewed cardiovascular journals with over 140 published papers and an 'h-index' of 48. He has regularly spoken at both national and international cardiology congresses.

Areas of interest

Heart valve replacement;
Blood pressure test;
Cardiac catheterisation;
Cardiac CT scan (heart CT);
Cardiomemo recording;
Cardioversion;
Cholesterol level test;
Coronary angioplasty;
Complex coronary artery disease including intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)/optical coherence tomography (OCT);
Invasive/non-invasive assessment and management of angina with non obstructive coronary arteries (ANOCA);
Optimising lipid (cholesterol) and other risk factors in patients with coronary artery disease (secondary prevention);
Screening for coronary artery disease and preventative treatment including lipid management (primary prevention)

Medical secretaries

• Simon Pascoe
• Cardiology Secretaries Office B1 University Hospital of Wales Heath Park Cardiff CF14 4XW
• 07568 085436
• VFarooqMedSec@outlook.com