Interventional Cardiology Awards

Recognition, and what it was for

Awards in interventional cardiology are usually given for one of two things: a case that solved a problem the field had not settled, or research that answered a question clinicians were arguing about. The recognitions listed on this page fall into both categories, and the short notes below explain what each was actually about.

Case presentation awards

Several cases from this practice were selected as best interesting case presentations at conferences in the United States. Each was chosen because the anatomy or the physiology argued against intervention.

• Unprotected left main stenting in rapidly progressive left main disease, without IABP support. Left main intervention without mechanical support is a deliberate decision, not an omission — the case set out when support adds risk rather than removing it.
• Inferior wall myocardial infarction with severe thrombocytopenia and active gum and nasal bleeding. A patient in whom every antithrombotic decision worked against the bleeding, and every delay worked against the myocardium.
• Left main coronary artery total occlusion in NSTEMI. Presented as Grim to Glim — a total occlusion of the left main presenting without ST elevation.
• Fractional flow reserve in multivessel disease in acute coronary syndrome. An argument that in multivessel ACS, physiology rather than angiographic appearance should decide which lesions are treated.
• Rescue PCI in extensive acute myocardial infarction in a 30-year-old man.

Professional recognitions

• Interventional Cardiologist recognition, 2016, New Delhi, India
• Most Promising Interventional Cardiologist in India, 2014, New Delhi, India
• Best Research Scholar in Heart Failure Management, 2009, Washington DC
• Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology, awarded 2007, Chicago, USA
• Highest Graded Abstract Award, CRT 2026, Washington DC

Research recognised at international meetings

• Heart rate and sudden cardiac death in congestive heart failure — first research paper, 2005, Chicago, USA. Heart rate as a modifiable risk marker rather than an observation.
• Emergency angioplasty in unprotected left main PTCA — 2012, USA, presented in the same period as the left main total occlusion case.
• Ulnar artery access compared with radial access for coronary intervention — a comfort and feasibility comparison relevant to repeat procedures and failed radial access.
• Robotic-guided angioplasty — 2012, Miami, Florida, reported as a first of its kind in India.
• TAVR and cerebral protection — best paper award, 2018, Barcelona, Spain, on reducing acute and late stroke in aortic stenosis.
• Anomalous coronary PCI and its procedural complications — 2019, Rome, Italy.
• Retrograde carotid angioplasty — 2020, Washington DC, in a young patient with Takayasu arteritis.

Themes across two decades

Read together, these recognitions trace three consistent interests. The first is left main and complex coronary disease treated percutaneously in patients who would otherwise be declined. The second is measurement over appearance — fractional flow reserve, intravascular ultrasound, and the repeated finding that the angiogram alone is not enough. The third is stroke and bleeding as the limits of intervention: cerebral protection in TAVR, and revascularisation in patients with thrombocytopenia or active bleeding.

The clinical reasoning behind these cases is written up in the Cardiology Learning Center, with the underlying procedural milestones on the achievements page and the presentation decks on the slides page.