Dr. Harsh Agrawal is a cardiologist who specializes in caring for patients with heart conditions using catheter-based diagnostic tests and treatments (a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel for access to the heart). He performs procedures that include replacing heart valves via catheters, treating disorders of arteries or veins by going through the skin, and placing ventricular assist devices through the skin. He also treats blocked heart and leg arteries by opening them for better blood flow with stents. He also treats cardiac patients in intensive care and patients in cardiogenic shock (a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs).
Agrawal's research focuses on ways to improve heart surgery and other cardiological procedures. He studies the use of MRI for patients with chronic kidney disease who are undergoing valve replacement surgery, seeking to decrease their exposure to the dye commonly used for scans (which can cause kidney problems). He also examines outcomes for stroke patients when surgeons use percutaneous techniques (passing through the skin) in a catheter-based procedure to close a small hole in the heart. He is examining how to hasten discharge for patients who have undergone structural heart valve replacements, and he analyzes the most effective way to treat a challenging type of heart lesion called coronary artery bifurcations. In addition, he studies outcomes for patients who undergo closure procedure to correct patent ductus arteriosus, a heart problem that occurs soon after birth in some babies.
Agrawal earned his medical degree from Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College in India. At the University of California, Los Angeles-OVMC he completed a residency in internal medicine, a fellowship in medical education and additional training in internal medicine. He completed a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Missouri, a fellowship in interventional cardiology at St.Elizabeths Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine and a fellowship in structural interventional cardiology at UCSF. He is a member of the Indian Medical Association, American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and American Heart Association.
When he isn't at work, Agrawal enjoys spending time with his family and being outdoors. He also enjoys volunteering for medical missions in India. He has cared for underserved children and people with leprosy through Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity; provided aid in the areas of Southeast Asia hit by a tsunami in 2004; run camps to help eradicate polio, and to provide diabetes and cardiovascular care; and treated patients needing cardiovascular care in government hospitals whose resources were strained. He was a semiprofessional soccer player throughout college and medical school, and played for the city of Lucknow in India.
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