Assessing and treating patients with potentially life threatening heart diseases leaves no room for complacency or error. Appropriate investigation followed by sympathetic reassurance is the key to returning an individual to a normal life. 

Dr Chitkara is skilled in all aspects of adult cardiology (including chest pain / angina, palpitation / arrhythmia, dizziness, breathlessness, high blood pressure / hypertension, high cholesterol, heart murmur, heart failure and cardiomyopathy assessment, coronary calcium score assessment, coronary risk factor profile assessment, BUPA Wellness, Lifescan assessment. He has a specialist interest in coronary angiography/angioplasty & stent insertion and non-invasive cardiac imaging.

Dr Chitkara is highly experienced in many aspects of heart disease, his expertise have been acquired from a long, traditional training programme at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. He was awarded an M.D in 2008 after a period of research in intervention at the University of Leicester. He subsequently undertook an Interventional Fellowship at the highly renowned Leeds General Infirmary and gained a wealth of experience in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). 

He has performed at least 5,000 coronary angiograms and 2,500 simple and complex PCI procedures, primarily via a radial route and considers himself to be a radial operator.  Dr Chitkara was instrumental in establishing primary angioplasty for the acute management of myocardial infarction (heart attack) at The Royal Derby Hospital, and he has also successfully established an uncontrolled hypertension clinic. 

Dr Chitkara is also an expert in non-coronary interventional/preventive cardiology and has other diverse clinical interests.

Coronary angiography, coronary angioplasty and Stent Insertion

Dr Chitkara regularly performs coronary angioplasty procedures to improve Angina symptoms and reduce the chances of having a heart attack.   The primary angioplasty for myocardial infarction (heart attack) treatment has been shown to save more lives than the conventional treatment for heart attacks with intravenous clot-busting medication.

He is highly experienced in transradial coronary procedures and trains other cardiologists in this technique. The transradial approach for coronary angiography and angioplasty (& stent insertion) procedures involves using the artery in the wrist (radial artery) to introduce the coronary catheter rather than the groin (femoral artery).

This transradial approach for angiography and angioplasty allows patients to stand or walk immediately after the coronary procedure and avoids the need for bed rest for 4 hours (required for the groin femoral approach).

Besides patient comfort, there are proven clinical advantages of the transradial approach - there is less risk of bleeding, and fewer incidents of vascular (blood vessel) complications compared to femoral route. Dr Chitkara performs the vast majority of procedures via the radial (wrist) artery.

In fact, patients who have experienced both methods, and who require a repeat procedure actually specifically request a transradial approach.

• Angina (chest pain)
• Syncope (blackouts)
• Shortness of breath
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Diseases of the heart valves  
• Arrhythmia (irregular heart beat)
• Congestive heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• Dizziness and syncope (fainting)
• Palpitations 
• Edema (swelling)
• High cholesterol

• Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS)

Special Interests

• Angina (chest pain), Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Uncontrolled Hypertension (high blood pressure) 
• Dizziness and syncope (fainting) 
• Palpitations 
• Arrhythmia (irregular heart beat)
• High cholesterol
• Shortness of breath
• Congestive heart failure
• Diseases of the heart valves  
• Coronary artery disease
• Edema (swelling)

Professional Memberships

• British Cardiac Interventional Society (BCIS)
• Medical Protection Society
• European Club of Interventional Cardiologists (EUCIC)

Course Director & Faculty

National & International Coronary Complications meeting: I have key interest in prevention of coronary complications and every year I organise interactive case based discussion course for final year SpRs and new Consultants in collaboration with a panel of experts, as I believe that complication cases often form the basis for a good discussion and are a learning opportunity for better management and prevention of coronary complications. Venue: Royal Derby Hospital –Derby & Aga Khan Hospital – Nairobi

STEMI AFRICA – Nairobi, I have been actively contributing in establishing heart attack services amongst various populations in Africa.

PCS

Heart Live conference  – Manchester Royal Infirmary 2015/2016

Research and Publications

I continue to be actively involved in groundbreaking clinical research and Principal Investigator for various randomised clinical trials involving stents, aortic stenosis, atrial fibrillation, angina and moderate coronary artery disease. I have recently published book on Coronary Complications during PCI-survival handbook. 

1. Complications of PCI – Survival handbook
2. Preclinical assessment of Eptifibatide eluting stents

Trials: 
Principal Investigator for multi-centre studies: RIPCORD, BRICCS-AS, EMMACE4, ULTIMASTER, EAST, REDUAL PCI.

A diagonal no like other –Case presentation TCT 2016

Audit of Nonagenarians PCI Outcome – presented at TCT 2015

Successful removal of an entrapped and knotted JL 3.5 catheter during right transradial cardiac catheterization by snaring and unwinding the catheter via femoral access –challenging case presented at TCT 2015

Computerised Tomography Calcium Score in a "real-world" cohort of elderly patients with new onset chest pain-a single centre experience.  SCAI Scientific session – USA 2015

Routine Pressure Wire Assessment at Time of Diagnostic Angiography: Is it Ready for Prime Time?  The RIPCORD Study. Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2014;7:139-141 Chitkara K*, Nick Curzen et.

DES: 2nd Generation vs. 1st generation. Chitkara K*, Gershlick A.H. J. Interventional Cardiology (Interventional Cardiology –August 2010).

Drug Eluting Stents in patients with ST Elevation MI. Chitkara K*, Gershlick A.H. European Cardiovascular Disease – Vol.1, (Issue II) November 2009.

Eptifibatide eluting stents as an anti-proliferative and anti-thrombotic agent: in- vitro evaluation. Chitkara K*, Hogrefe K, Gershlick A.H. J Invasive Cardiol. 2006 Sep; 18(9):417-22.

Drug Eluting Stents in coronary atheromatous disease. Chitkara K*, Hogrefe K, Gershlick. Hospital Pharmacy Europe- 48-51 October 2003.

Drug Eluting Stents: Promises and Pitfalls. Chitkara K*, Bhandari M, Gershlick A.H. Interventional Cardiology Monitor- volume 10, No.1 2003.

Useful Links

• kamalchitkara.co.uk