Cardiologists are doctors who specialise in diagnosing, treating and preventing diseases that mainly affect the heart and blood vessels and work with adult patients to treat ongoing, long-term illnesses or will respond to emergency, potentially life-threatening situations.

Conditions include:

• angina
• arrhythmias
• cardiomyopathy
• congenital heart disease
• disease of the arteries
• heart attacks
• heart murmurs
• oedema.

General cardiologists diagnose and treat diseases of the blood vessels and heart, work to improve survival rates and quality of life, and also have an interest in the prevention of disease. Speciality interests include:

• adult congenital heart disease - a heart condition or defect you're born with
• cardiac electronic device therapy - uses devices such as implantable cardioverter-defibrillators to treat patients with heart failure or arrhythmias
• cardiac imaging - reads and interprets a range of tests and images that can be run on the heart, including echocardiograms, MRI scans and cardiac CT scans
• electrophysiology - works with the bio-electric impulses of the heart to help identify and treat problems, such as irregular heartbeats, through medication and invasive procedures
• heart failure - supports and treats patients with heart failure, including cardiac transplants
• interventional - performs advanced cardiac procedures such as stent placements in closed or diseased arteries, atherectomy and balloon angioplasty.
• New areas of sub-specialisation include inherited cardiac conditions