Yousif Ahmad, BMBS, PhD, is an interventional cardiologist with specific expertise in complex coronary interventions, including percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for chronic total occlusions (CTO), which involves minimally invasive procedures to open clogged arteries. He has special training in complex and high-risk PCI, and mechanical circulatory support devices that help the heart when it can’t pump on its own.
He also has expertise in structural heart disease, performing nonsurgical interventions for valvular heart disease such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and MitraClip.
“These are treatments that often help patients who have been told they have no options, or that they have to undergo cardiac surgery,” Dr. Ahmad says. “Many of them have undergone bypass surgery in the past but have ongoing chest pain or shortness of breath.” These have turned out to be the patients who benefit the most from these procedures, he says.
Dr. Ahmad says he became an interventional cardiologist because he knew he would be able to help many patients with effective treatments that have been well studied. “I particularly enjoy how quickly patients feel better after they have been treated,” he says, explaining that pain relief after opening a blocked artery is instant, and his patients often resume their normal routines without a long period of convalescence or a long hospital stay.
An assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Ahmad is also a researcher with interests in all aspects of interventional and structural cardiology. He has been honored with investigator awards from the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and EuroPCR. He has published in leading journals such as The Lancet, Circulation, European Heart Journal, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
