Hope everyone is well and navigating themselves okay on their AF journey.
People’s advice on here has always been really helpful and just wanted to ask if anybody has visited Dr Gupta? I’ve not felt confident with the level of care I’ve got from my current cardiologist and looking to get a second opinion. Dr Gupta is tremendous person I follow his YouTube channel and advice and knowledge really gave me a good understanding of AF and living with it. I will be having to travel a few hours to see him. So just wondering if anybody else is under Dr Gupta and make sure I’m making the best decision.
Really help you can help.
Thanks David.
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I think you are making the right decision David. I understand he does telephone consultions too - maybe it's worth you having one of these before making the final decision.
I, too, follow Dr Gupta’s YouTube channel and certainly found the advice and reassurance in his videos a great help, particularly in the early days of my AF diagnosis.
The only thing I would say is that, as I understand it, Dr Gupta is a cardiologist who specialises in cardiac imaging, he’s not an electrophysiologist. Given that, although he is an excellent communicator, I think your money might be better spent consulting an EP if the treatment options for atrial fibrillation is the reason you are seeking a second opinion. If, on the other hand, you are looking to discuss other heart conditions then I’m sure he’d be an excellent choice.
I have had a face to face consult ( only live 35 mins from York), and telephone. He is easy to talk with and the time given to air your concerns is most useful. I take on board the comment about him not being an EP but you will get a balanced view and the tools needed for you to make your own decisions.
You realize Dr. Gupta is a general cardiologist and not an ep (electrophysiologist)? Depending on what stage of your afib journey you're on, one may be a better choice than another.
His videos are great. If you go ahead with a Face to Face meeting you probably need to temper your expectations. I was underwhelmed with my meeting but to be fair a one-off brief second opinion is always going to be somewhat shallow and even cardiologists have ineffective days 🤔.
Yes, I had a telephone consultation with him way back in the early days of my diagnosis and must say I didn’t find it particularly helpful. However, a lot of that was down to me not knowing what to ask. I’d made the appointment in rather a panic following my AF diagnosis in A&E . An appointment to see the NHS cardiologist wasn’t going to be for months and I thought I had something terminal going on with my heart! I hadn’t discovered this forum back then😀
Hello, following a consultation with an NHS consultant who made me feel as if I was at deaths door I decided to look for a private consultant for a second opinion. After a lot of research I contacted Sanjay Gupta, made an appointment for a telephone consultation first, which you can do online and then a few months later travelled to York to have some tests done.
Dr Gupta is a very experienced and knowledgable cardiologist . He is easy to talk to and he listens to what you are saying. A rare commodity sometimes. His explanations are easy to understand and he is kind and friendly. One of the things that attracted me to go to him, other than his expertise, were his values and what he believes in.
Definitely worth arranging a telephone consultation to see how you feel after talking directly to him. Good luck.
Thanks everybody for your help and advice. I’ve been a member of this site since first being diagnosed with persistent AF back in July 2021. Luckily my heart rhythm was corrected via a cardioversion in Jan 22 and has stayed okay since. However having a history of mitral valve regurgitation which was repaired 20 years ago (now being 35yo) it has brought me back under the cardiology’s eyes. After my previous op as a teenager I was told everything is okay and no need to return for check ups and can lead a normal life. But since the AF diagnosis and the tests that followed it seems my mitral valve has deterred in someways which has made me slightly anxious. When I was in the AF state my ejection fraction was low and in the heart failure zone and also the echo was showing I now had moderate mitral stenosis. Since the cardio version I seem to of come out of the heart failure zone and mitral stenosis seems to be more mild now. My consultant has schedule my next appointment for three years which is a long time. I have a young family that relies on me and want to be as well equipped for the future as I can. During our last conversation with my consultant it was via the phone. I have never met him and every phone call has always been rushed and felt resistance/ impatience to my list of questions I had ready. Me looking for a second opinion is more to just try and find out what the future ‘may’ hold on why I wish to get a second opinion. I’m also still take bisoprolol and edoxaban even though my heart is in normal rhythm, I’m fit active and run. I just feel like my current consultant has just gone for the blanket approach instead of specific to me. I feel getting the second opinion will give me the reassurance I’m looking for. There are a lot of consultants out there who work private in the north west which look good. But seeing Dr Gupta on YouTube I feel he has the approach I like doctors to have. Yesterday following me posting this. I contacted dr gupta and have discussed what the best options are for what I’m seeking. After reading your comments and yesterday’s enquiry with him, I’ve decided to go for ecg, echo and consultation with him which will all be done on the same day. I will let you know how I get on. Will probably be next month now. Thanks again everyone. Appreciate it.
I can’t imagine he’s anything other than an excellent practising doctor. I have watched several of his videos but don’t follow him as I became disenchanted by what - to me - was the overly assertive way he makes certain claims which are, in truth, either unproven or still contentious. But that’s just me. In general, I’d guess that he’s a good doctor and a useful source of AF information.
In terms of travelling to see him, I’d wonder about the point in that. This is not because of him at all, but because of your feelings or reasoning. If you feel the need for a second opinion then any cardiologist at your private hospital with EP training would surely be a cheaper and more practical option?
That said, if you have had an ultrasound echo scan, your doctor will surely have as good a picture as any other to enable him or her to decide what to do to look after your heart.
A better way to spend money, in my experience, is to ask your doctor for a cardiac stress MRI scan. These are likely only to be offered privately but offer a gold standard view of the heart and its workings. From this, even your GP will have a mine of useful information from which to offer sound advice, which might well include a visit to a cardiologist, of course, for further diagnosis, if need be.
Hi Steve, Have you had the MRI done before? I will enquire about them. What benefits over just having the echo done would you say they offer? Thanks for your help. David
I have had one, yes. I was lucky (?) as at the time I was covered by my wife's private insurance. It was after my ablation for atrial flutter in 2019 when I found I was still getting some chest discomfort after walking a good distance (while pushing my grandson in his pushchair, in fact!).
The cardiologist EP who did the ablation ordered a stress cardiac MRI to see what the cause might be. He told me that it was a very specialised kind of modern MRI able to provide high levels of definition and detail compared with the two echocardiograms that I had had already. He said it would show any diseased areas, scarring and such like (which was all very worrying at the time, I can tell you!). The "stress" part involved an injection that sped up the heart to simulate exercise (I hardly noticed that).
I have since read that the MRI is less good at finding blocked and narrowed arteries but even here it is perfectly able to show any diseased areas caused by blockages or constrictions, so if any such areas were to show on the MRI, a CT angiogram would then be done to look at what the cause was. This added more worry!
In the event, he told me the MRI showed my heart was healthy and that the chest discomfort was of no concern. It did confirm what previous ECGs and echocardiograms had shown, that I had what is called a left branch bundle block (LBBB), but that this, in the presence of an otherwise healthy heart, would likely never be a future problem.
He never did say what caused the discomfort, though. I still get it, in fact, and have had it today, feeding into my back and even very slightly into my left arm. I can't help but worry when it happens even though I've had it often enough by now. It comes on only occasionally, whenever my heart is going through what I call a more fragile phase, which is when I get multiple ectopic beats. In fact, yesterday I had AF for three hours, too, which is unusual, although getting more common, sadly. It was without the chest discomfort at the time, but did give me, for the first time, an unusual left-sided tension headache.
In terms of cost, I think you would be looking at £1500, or so for the MRI - quite a lot! Is it worthwhile? I would ask your GP, or better, the cardiologist you are seeing for guidance. Would I have paid had I not had the insurance and not a comfortably large bank balance? Yes, I would, as I am not easily appeased regarding health worries, sadly. I wish I were. There are many here who are much braver!
That sounds ideal. But unfortunately that is way out of what I can afford especially at the moment. Also my current consultant seems to believe 3 years is fine until the next appointment. Saying that the cardioversion would have been probably a year later if I hadn’t of pushed at the time. So I don’t have much faith in the current NHS systems urgency. I have been looking at other cardiologists in the north west of England where I live and the prices seem to all be similar to the package Dr Gupta offers which is £500 for ecg, echo, results and consultation all on the same day. Yesterday my contact with him I found him easy to talk to and explain what I’m looking for. I was quite shocked it wasn’t his secretary and was him that I was connected too. I know it’s easy to be cynical consultants and their private practices. But it’s like all things in this world. We are all trying to sell our services. I will let you know how I get on. Thanks for your advice.
That sounds a good price to me. I can understand your anxiety and need for further diagnosis and medical input. I have no reason to doubt that he's a very capable and enthusiastic cardiologist but I live in hope that you won't learn more of real value than your NHS doctor has found. I think the NHS cardiologists are likely to have wide and useful experience and are very well trained. Our hospitals are overwhelmed and understaffed but, still, the staff and facilities are all first class.
All that said, I could well see me going don the same route as you are taking as I am a born worrier. You don't give your age, by the way, but, if you are younger, it is even more understandable.
I have watched several of his videos but don’t follow him as I became disenchanted by what - to me - was the overly assertive way he makes certain claims which are, in truth, either unproven or still contentious. But that’s just me.
Not just you. The more I learn about afib, the less I am enamored by his videos.
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