Optimal Online 2020 - Day 2 - Is treating coronary calcium too difficult and too dangerous?

Anenta is a Cardiology registrar currently undertaking her PhD at Imperial College London in arterial haemodynamics and cardiovascular risk. She has interests in medical education and public engagement.

Claudia Cosgrove is an interventional cardiologist working at St George’s Hospital in London. She trained in Australia before undertaking a fellowship in complex and CTO PCI at St George's. She is involved in research in calcific coronary artery disease, left main stem PCI and intravascular imaging.

Divaka Perera graduated in medicine from Cambridge University and completed his early clinical training at Addenbrooke’s, Papworth and West Suffolk hospitals. He undertook specialist training in cardiology in south London and sub-speciality training in interventional cardiology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals. In 2008, he received a senior lectureship award from the Department of Health, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC). He was also appointed to the post of consultant cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. He was promoted to reader in interventional cardiology in 2013 and to professor of cardiology in 2017. In addition to his clinical and research roles, he teaches undergraduate medical students and supervises postgraduate researchers towards MSc, MD and PhD degrees at King’s College London.

James Spratt Professor of Interventional cardiology with a sub-speciality interest in complex PCI, intravascular imaging and CTO. He is widely published within this area and has performed live case demonstrations globally. He has an interest in medical education and is the Founder of Optima Education.

Consultant Interventional Cardiologist and Revascularisation Group Chair at Royal Brompton Hospital, London. His clinical focus is on use of intravascular imaging in complex PCI , CTO and cardiogenic shock. His clinical research interests focus on optical coherence tomography, calcific coronary disease and percutaneous ventricular support. Dr Hill was global co-chief investigator for the DISRUPT CAD III study and has served as UK principal investigator for multiple interventional trials. He has served as a CTO and complex PCI proctor on a global basis and works closely with OPTIMA to focus on the development of OPTIMAL PCI. He is the founding co-director of the Complete Revascularisation (CoRe) meetings held every year in London.

Dr Julian Strange is a consultant interventional cardiologist at Bristol Heart Institute, UK. His specialty and research interests are in coronary disease and include coronary angioplasty, complex PCI and chronic total occlusions (CTO) as well as advanced heart attack and cardiac arrest therapies.

A director, cardiac catheterization laboratory at Henry Ford Hospital and Health System, Detroit, MI, USA. Features in 2 videos on Wondr Medical. Khaldoon Alaswad generally speaks on Impella, Cardiology, and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Dr Peter O’Kane graduated from Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School in 1995 with First Class Honours Bachelor of Science BSc degree in Physiology, Medical Degree and numerous prizes including the Llewelyn Prize for the second-best distinction in medical finals. After attaining membership of the Royal College of Physicians he was subsequently awarded a Doctorate of Medicine by the University of London for a thesis on the role of nitric oxide in coronary heart disease. Dr O’Kane was appointed as Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in July 2007. He has performed over 7000 PCI procedures as a Consultant. He routinely treats extensively calcified lesions, bifurcations including left main stem disease & chronic total occlusions. He is committed to teaching & education with local fellowship training program through to national & international proctorship of techniques & multiple adjunctive devices. He has trained Consultant colleagues from the UK, Europe, Asia & USA through local workshops and courses. He is regularly invited as faculty to National & International meetings as a presenter & live case operator. He has published over 70 manuscripts and authored 10 book chapters. He is a local principal Investigator for over 30 National & International multi-centre clinical trials & is dedicated to patient recruitment with over 900 patients recruited to trials he has managed. He has led numerous quality improvement programs, is PCI Lead, Cardiology Governance and Mortality Lead & has achieved National Bronze Clinical Excellence Award level 9. He was a nationally elected member to British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) Council (2020-2023) and from March 2023 is a member of BCIS Research Working Group.

Dr Tom Johnson is an interventional cardiologist and recently appointed Associate Professor at the Bristol Heart Institute & University of Bristol, UK. He is an active member of the EAPCI, currently sitting on the Education & Training, and the Scientific programme committees, with responsibilities for writing the new interventional curriculum and exam. He is a member of the European Bifurcation Club, the ESC ACCA SCAD study group, co-authoring the European position paper, and sits on the UK Societi scientific committee for Kawasaki disease. His academic interests include developing the role of intracoronary imaging in PCI, optimising bifurcation results and platelet pharmacology in acute coronary syndromes. He plays an active role in local, national, and international educational initiatives in developing PCI skills.

Dr Yoshifumi KASHIMA is a member of Japanese Board of CTO interventional specialist. He is also an expert ROTABLATOR operator. He is called ROTAMONSTER.

Ziad Ali is the Director of the DeMatteis Cardiovascular Institute, Director of Investigational Interventional Cardiology, and Director of Cardio-nephrology at St Francis Hospital & Heart Center in New York. He is also Director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. His clinical research interests focus on the use of intravascular imaging and physiology technologies such as optical coherence tomography, intravascular ultrasound, and flow wire assessment to optimize coronary interventions, for which he has served as a Global principal investigator on a number of trials. Dr. Ali is also a recognized innovator, playing an integral role in the development of the Resting Full-Cycle Ratio (RFR) and Shockwave intravascular lithotripsy. Clinically Dr. Ali developed pioneering techniques to perform vascular interventions without contrast administration, including IVUS-guided zero-contrast PCI and OCT using saline flush media, protecting patients with advanced kidney disease from acute kidney injury and the need for dialysis.