Course Category: Expert Talk

This Grand Round focuses on antenatal onset adenocarcinoma treated on ECMO.

Professor Andrew Bush has research interests that include the invasive and non-invasive measurement of airway inflammation in children, in particular the use of endobronchial biopsy in the management of severe asthma, and clinical physiology, especially respiratory mass spectrometry.
Professor Claire Hogg is a leader in clinical research in PCD and novel diagnostics. Together with her research group, Prof Hogg has developed new techniques, including 3-dimensional electron tomography and the validation of immunofluorescence for the diagnosis of PCD. Her group is the first in the world to introduce the use of Artificial Intelligence to assist the diagnosis of PCD.
Dr Michele Arigliani is a paediatric respiratory fellow at RBH. His research interests focus on lung physiology and respiratory complications in children born preterm and in those with sickle cell disease. He has co-authored over 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

This talk by Dr Wala Mattar, focuses on what GPs and primary care should be aware of and when they should consider referring patients to the heart failure services.

Learning objectives:

Definition of heart failure
Chronic vs acute heart failure
Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction vs preserved ventricular function
Cardiac rhythm management for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction
Multidisciplinary team management for the prevention and treatment of chronic heart failure

Dr Wala Mattar Background

Dr Wala Mattar is a consultant cardiologist, appointed at Watford General and Harefield Hospital in 2018.

Prior to this, Dr Mattar qualified from the Arabian Gulf University in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2004, then specialised in internal medicine and cardiology. In 2011, she came to the UK to train in cardiology at Harefield Hospital. Her subspecialty interest is coronary and structural intervention and permanent pacemakers’ insertion.

.The webinar focuses on cardiac MRI guideline indications in patients with cardiovascular disease. It uses clinical cases to illustrate the role of cardiac MRI in identifying a final diagnosis, guide management and inform diagnosis.

The spectrum of pathologies discussed spans from ischemic heart disease, chest pain, myocarditis, heart failure and various non-ischemic cardiomyopathic process, as well as hypertension.

Professor Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci Background

Professor Bucciarelli-Ducci received her undergraduate degree and postgraduate fellowship in cardiology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy.

She then undertook courses and fellowships at various prestigious international univerisites. Professor Ducci also worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital as a senior CMR clinical and research fellow. In 2012 she was awarded a PhD in CMR from the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College.

The Bristol Heart Institute and University of Bristol appointed Professor Ducci as a consultant cardiologist. In 2021 she then returned to Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals to lead the CMR clinical academic programme at Harefield.

This Grand Round delivered by Professor Nicholas Simmonds covers Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis and CFTR function.

More specifically this Grand Round covers:

Pathopysiology
Diagnostic pathway and uncertainties
CFTR functional tests
Case examples
CFTR related disorders
Future directions

Professor Nicholas Simmonds Background

Professor Nicholas Simmonds is Associate Director of the Adult CF Centre at Brompton and Professor of Practice (Respiratory Medicine) at Imperial College London. His main research interests include difficult CF diagnosis and the investigation of novel CF therapies. He has been a Principal Investigator on numerous global multicentre trials and is on the Executive Committee of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society (ECFS) Clinical Trials Network. He has extensive experience of novel diagnostic techniques and is the Vice Coordinator of the ECFS Diagnostic Network. He is also on the Registry Research Committee of the UK CF Registry, a role which promotes the use of registries to better understand outcomes in CF.

This Grand Round presented by Dr Stanley Hazen focuses on the microbiome: how the gut speaks to the heart.

Dr Stanley Hazen Background

Dr. Stanley Hazen received his clinical training in Internal Medicine and sub specialty training in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Barnes/Jewish Hospital, and a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry and Molecular Biology from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. He holds multiple leadership positions at the Cleveland Clinic including chair, Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences, co-section head, Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation, and Director, Center for Microbiome & Human Health.

Dr. Hazen is an elected fellow to both the National Academy of Medicine, USA, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also is an elected member of the American Association
of Physicians

Focusing on all aspects of general cardiology and how to manage patients and when to refer.

Learning objectives:

To gain an understanding of the workup for chest pain
To gain an understanding of the management of heart failure
To gain confidence in management of hypertension

Dr Sohaib Nazir Background

Dr Sohaib Nazir is a consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital and clinical senior lecturer at King’s College London. He specialises in all aspects of general adult cardiology such as chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations, and general health checks for cardiovascular risk factor modification.

He has a specialist interest in heart failure and cardio-oncology – notably he is one of the few clinicians in the UK who are accredited by the International Cardio-Oncology Society, and the Royal Brompton Hospital is one of two centres in the UK with Gold accreditation by this society.

Focusing on prevention approaches in COPD (including inhaled and non-inhaled advanced therapies, use of eosinophil biomarkers etc), approaches to distinguishing viral from bacterial infections (with associated implications for antibiotic stewardship) and an update on current understanding and approaches to managing long COVID syndromes.

Learning objectives:

Options for exacerbation prevention in COPD and what we can additionally consider/offer in secondary care.
Strategies for distinguishing viral and bacterial infections and optimum treatment approaches.
Diagnosis and management of Post-COVID/Long-COVID syndromes.

Dr Aran Singanayagam Background

Dr Aran Singanayagam completed his medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 2005 achieving distinction in his final examinations alongside a first-class intercalated BSc in physiology. He trained as a respiratory doctor within north-west London, primarily at St Mary’s, Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

This Grand Round presented by Dr Guy Scadding explores penicillin allergy de-labelling.

This Grand Round presented by Professor Nizar N. JarJour focuses on the systematic effect of asthma.

Professor Nizar N. JarJour Background

Nizar Jarjour, MD is an Adult Pulmonologist, Ovid Meyer Endowed Professor of Medicine, and the Head of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Jarjour has served as a Principal Investigator for several NIH funded collaborative grants, including the severe asthma research program (SARP) and the precision therapies in severe and exacerbation prone asthma (PrecISE). Most recently, Dr. Jarjour has conducted research studies on the systemic effects of asthma. In 2023, Drs. Jarjour and Melissa Rosenkranz received an RO1 as Co-PIs to study the effects of airway inflammation in asthma on the risk for dementia. Last September, he chaired the International Collaborative Asthma Network (ICAN) meeting in Milan and started a 6-month sabbatical in the UK to explore opportunities for US-UK collaboration on asthma research studies. The first half of his sabbatical was spent at University of Southampton, and he came to Imperial College in late November for the second half of his sabbatical, working closely with Drs. Fan Chung, Salman Siddiqui and Ian Adcock.

This talk presented by Dr Owais Dar focuses on heart transplantation and LVAD therapy and analysis where we are now and how we got here.

Dr Owais Dar Background

Dr Dar completed his specialist general cardiology training and sub-speciality heart failure training at:

North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
The Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
Whittington Hospital.

He got a funded international fellowship in advanced heart failure, heart transplantation and left ventricular assist devices in Vienna General Hospital (Austria) and Stanford Health Care (California, USA).