I have over 20 years experience in interventional cardiology and cardiac pacing, since my early training as a registrar in London. I have seen, and participated in, the development of coronary intervention from its earliest days of balloon angioplasty, through to the current era of drug-eluting stents. During that time I have contributed to research in this area and have been part of the evolution of the treatment of acute myocardial infarction from thrombolysis to primary angioplasty.
For coronary work I use the radial (wrist) approach almost exclusively, which avoids the most common complications of angioplasty (bleeding from the groin puncture site), and I generally reserve the groin approach for peripheral work that requires larger catheters. I have been one of the local pioneers in treating carotid disease percutaneously, and I am the principal local investigator in a large multi-centre international trial comparing carotid stenting with endarterectomy. The results of this study will be available shortly.
My “high tech” subspecialty interests mean that I am acutely aware of the limitations of angioplasty, as well as its strengths, and the importance of preventive cardiology. In my general cardiology/consulting work I stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and take a keen interest in problems relating to dyslipidaemia and hypertension. I am thus able to provide a continuum of care for an individual patient, from prevention to intervention.