Decision-making and problem solving in complex PCI: interactive case-based learning

Prof Ahmed Khashaba, qualified in medicine, specialized in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Egypt’s Ain Shams University Hospitals, and he gained the title of Professor of Cardiology at the same university. He is a member of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) and a Fellow of the American Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCAI). Having the interest to introduce and employ new technologies, he established the first TAVI program in Egypt in 2011. He was also the first to introduce and perform the following techniques to Egypt: IVUS-VH, OCT, total radial interventions, iFR, MDCT as well as 3D echocardiography. Recently, he performed the first orbital atherectomy in a private hospital in the middle east in UAE. He is also a proctor and trainer for consultants in most of these and other complex cardiac intervention procedures. Prof Khashaba shared as a principal investigator in many of the international multicenter studies in interventional cardiology, including the landmark DEFINE-FLAIR study. He was also the only cardiologist from the middle east to share in the production of the European consensus document for Rotablator usage. He has over 35 publications and over 90 oral presentations as a faculty member and live demonstrator at several national, regional and international cardiology meetings.

Prof Javier Escaned is Head of Section (Interventional Cardiology Section) at Hospital Clinico San Carlos / Complutense University (Madrid, Spain). He trained in the United Kingdom as Specialist in Cardiology and obtained his PhD in The Netherlands. Author of >600 indexed scientific articles on interventional cardiology, imaging and physiology (h-index 74) and over 30 years of experience as PCI operator, he regularly lectures and performs live cases at major scientific and educational meetings. He is a recipient of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Silver Medal and the Andreas Grüntzig Award for his contributions to the fiedl fo Interventional Cardiology. Main areas of expertise include complex PCI, intracoronary diagnostics and functional coronary angiography. His track record in coronary physiology comprises being investigator on pioneer FFR trials like DEFER (1998), collaborator with Justin Davies in the validation and clinical implementation of iFR, and developer of new tools for the assessment of coronary microcirculation. Editorial roles include Deputy Editor EHJ, Advisory Editor Eurointervention, editor of the textbooks “Coronary Stenosis: Imaging, Structure and Physiology” and “Physiological Assessment of Coronary Stenoses and the Microcirculation". Recent board positions include EAPCI board / Education Committee Chair, ESC WG Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation, EuroCTO Board. Recent trials as Principal Investigator include ADVISE II, DEFINE FLAIR, SYNTAX II, PIONEER IV, Cerebral-Coronary-Connection (C3), DCR4Contrast, INOCA LongCovid and AID ANGIO. Additional interests are philosophy and music.

Dr Nieves Gonzalo is Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at the Interventional Cardiology Department at Clinico San Carlos University Hospital in Madrid. She obtained her Specialist Certification in Cardiology after training at Clinico San Carlos University Hospital in Madrid. Subsequently, she underwent a research fellowship at Thoraxcenter, Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands) under the supervision of Professor Patrick Serruys, focused mainly in intracoronary imaging and bioabsorbable stents. In 2010 she obtained her PhD with the thesis “Optical coherence tomography for the assessment of coronary atherosclerosis and vessel response after stent implantation”. Her track record includes over 170 articles indexed in PubMed, as well as book chapters in Interventional Cardiology textbooks. Recent research projects as principal investigator includes a study about the assessment of neoatherosclerosis and its clinical impact in patients with restenosis (RIBS IV and V OCT substudy) and research regarding vessel injury and healing evaluation with different stent platforms evaluated with OCT (VISTA study). Dr Gonzalo is a dedicated educationalist with involvement in many areas of complex PCI, serving currently as Deputy Editor for Eurointervention and Committee Member of EuroPCR.

Dr Simon Walsh has been working as a Consultant Cardiologist at the Belfast Trust for over 10 years. It is one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. The centre performs ~2750 PCI per year, with 650-700 STEMI and calcium modification in ~10% of our PCI cases. Dr Walsh also works internationally as an educator, teaching advanced techniques for complex PCI and CTO PCI. This involves training visiting Cardiologists in Belfast retrograde CTO techniques, antegrade dissection and re-entry CTO techniques and other advanced PCI procedures. He has visited multiple centres in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, Asia and North America to act as a visiting proctor for complex PCI and CTO PCI cases. Dr Walsh’s research interests include PCI, coronary artery disease, defibrillation, acute coronary syndromes and chronic total occlusions. Research responsibilities have included acting as a recruiting investigator for the >25 multicentre studies over the last 17 years. He acted as a primary investigator for numerous international trials including the Evolve, Noble, Leaders Free and Ischemia multicentre studies. He has been the lead UK investigator for the October trial, Syntax 2, Recharge and Ischaemia-CTO. He is also the Chief Investigator for the Consistent CTO, Celtic Bifurcation and Discrete CTO trials.