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Doctor-to-Doctor Stories

Dr. David Engel		Can restenosis surface after a successful angina intervention? Can young, fit patients have serious cholesterol issues? Defective perfusion: Surgical intervention or medical management? Do medications affect HDL? Do patients with exertional angina always need an angiogram? How are the new statin guidelines changing statin usage? How do newer anti-coagulation agents compare to warfarin? How do we choose a revascularization strategy? How do we decide between bypass surgery and angioplasty? How do we manage a chronic total occlusion (CTO)? How do you assess cardiovascular risk? How do you decide if a stress test is really necessary? If a patient's risk profile is low can a stress test help inform the diagnosis? Is a normal stress test that's a year old of any value? Is a stress test always necessary to diagnose angina? Is an angiogram ever appropriate without cardiac symptoms? Should patients take herbal supplements to manage their cholesterol? Should revascularization be performed as a staged procedure? What are a patient's options for revascularization? What is the preferred treatment for branch vessel disease? What role does a symptom burden play in treatment decisions? When other risk factors make patients a poor surgical candidate are there other treatment options? Which pain descriptions assist in a clinical diagnosis? Why is a current stress test so important?

Dr. Alan Gass		Can a patient go home on inotropic therapy? Can defibrillators be used for patients who've had a lethal arrhythmia? Do lifestyle modifications affect outcomes for heart patients? How are transplant organs allocated? How do we get from an etiology to a prognosis for heart failure patients? How do we manage the secondary effects of peripheral ECMO? How do we treat cardiogenic shock? How do we treat systolic heart failure? How early should a heart failure patient be referred to a specialist? How many cardiologists does it take to diagnose amyloidosis? What are inotropes? What are the immunosuppression strategies that are used post heart transplant? What are the limitations of inotropes? What are the status categories for transplant candidates? What can we do when bypass is not an option? What categories of patients benefit from a defibrillator? What happens once a patient is inotrope dependent? What is a ventricular assist device? What is diastolic heart failure? What's life like after a heart transplant? When is aggressive immunosupression the right post-transplant anti rejection strategy? When is peripheral ECMO a better alternative than surgery?