Case 2 - CTO PCI (retrograde) with support

Catalin Toma, MD, is an interventional cardiologist and is certified in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He currently serves as director of interventional cardiology for the Heart and Vascular Institute and director of the Interventional Fellowship at UPMC. He is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iasi, Romania. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, he completed an internal medicine residency at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at UPMC. Dr. Toma joined the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute in 2007. He currently leads the Chronic Total Occlusion Program as well as the Pulmonary Vascular Interventional Program at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. He is an integral part of the Structural Heart Program with interests in the aortic and tricuspid space. Additional interests include intracoronary imaging and mechanical circulatory support. Dr. Toma has had an extensive amount of publications and presentations over his career, has several invention patents, and serves as a clinical study leader at local and national levels.

Dr. Jai Khatri is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He is Director of Complex Coronary Intervention at the Cleveland Clinic. His research and clinical focus is the management of coronary chronic total occlusions.

Dr. Kevin J. Croce is an interventional cardiologist and the director of the Chronic Total Occlusion Complex Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) who also directs the BWH Translational Discovery Laboratory which is a centralized research facility that uses state-of-the-art technology to perform preclinical testing of promising therapies and medical devices. Dr. Croce received his medical and Ph.D. degrees from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency, a cardiology fellowship and an interventional cardiology fellowship at BWH. Dr. Croce is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. His clinical interests include advanced treatments for obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), and optimization of antithrombotic and antiplatelet pharmacotherapy. The author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Croce’s research focuses on understanding the molecular pathobiology of atherothrombotic (CAD) and on identifying new targets for CAD treatment. His research has received support from the National Institutes of Health.

Nicholas J. Lembo, MD, is an interventional cardiologist affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. Dr. Lembo completed his internship and residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, a cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas and an interventional cardiology fellowship at the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Pratik Sandesara is a Complex and High-Risk Interventional Procedures (CHIP) fellow and a Senior Associate at Emory University School of Medicine. He graduated from the combined 6-year BA/MD program at University of Missouri-Kansas City. He went on to complete internal medicine residency and general and interventional cardiology fellowships at Emory University. His areas of clinical interest are complex coronary intervention including chronic total occlusion PCI, structural heart intervention (TAVR, ASD and PFO closure) and coronary intravascular imaging.

Tony De Martini is an interventional cardiology at Advocate Medical Group, Downers Grove, IL, USA.

After completing his M.D. at Tulane Medical School, Bill Lombardi went on to the University of Utah, Salt Lake City for his internal medicine residency and fellowships in cardiology, heart failure/cardiac transplant, and interventional cardiology. Dr. Lombardi then returned home to Washington State and joined St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham. During the 13 years that he was at St. Joseph’s, Dr. Lombardi helped to develop novel CTO techniques and technologies and was fundamental to the inception of the “hybrid algorithm” to facilitate reproducibly successful outcomes in chronic total occlusion and complex lesion PCI. During this time he was also active in physician training, CME courses and proctoring. Dr. Lombardi joined the University of Washington Medical Center in 2014 as associate clinical professor and director of the Complex Coronary Disease Therapies Program. He is certified in interventional cardiology and cardiovascular disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Lombardi's interests include sailing, fishing, and spending time with family.

Dr. William Nicholson is acting Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Complex Coronary and Cardiac Intervention at Emory Healthcare. Dr. Nicholson also serves as the program director for the Advanced Complex High-Risk Interventional Procedures (CHIP) fellowship at Emory University Hospital. Dr. Nicholson came to Emory in 2020 after fourteen years in private interventional cardiology practice in York, Pennsylvania. While in private practice, Dr. Nicholson founded and developed that institution’s carotid stenting program, structural heart program, transcatheter aortic valve replacement program, and the complex coronary intervention program. He also has become nationally and internationally recognized for his expertise in treatment of Chronic Total Occlusions (CTO’s). He is a perennial live case operator for nationally televised conferences. Dr. Nicholson formerly trained at Emory University Hospital having completed his general cardiology and interventional fellowship in 2006. He completed his medical residency at Brown University Hospitals where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State College of Medicine.