Mel Lobo: Consultant Cardiovascular Medicine and Clinical High Blood Pressure Specialist, London

Dr Mel Lobo is a Consultant Physician with a special interest in Cardiovascular Medicine and in particular Hypertension and Hypercholesterolaemia. (www.drmellobo.com)

Dr Lobo is the Director of the internationally renowned Bart's and The London Hypertension Clinic which has been recognised as a Hypertension Centre of Excellence by the European Society of Hypertension. Dr Lobo is an accredited Clinical Hypertension Specialist of the European Society of Hypertension (one of only 33 in the whole of the UK) and sees in excess of 2,000 hypertension-related consultations per year in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He also has extensive experience of treating patients with hypercholesterolaemia and other lipid disorders.
 
Dr Lobo and his team are the first in the UK to have undertaken renal symphathectomy as a treatment of hypertension and this has been reported in the national press (see here, here, and here for more details). Dr Lobo is the Prinicpal Investigator of the study and the trial is hoping to report its findings later in 2010. it is hoped that this novel and exciting treament for hypertension will be available in his clinic during the course of 2010.

Clinical interests

• All forms of hypertension and cardiovascular disease

• Hypercholesterolaemia

• Hypertensive emergencies and urgencies:

Patients with difficult to control blood pressure sometimes require hospital admission to further assess their hypertension and safely reduce blood pressure using either intravenous infusions of anti-hypertensive therapy or tailored oral therapies. Dr Lobo has facilities for admitting both NHS and private patients for such reasons.

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring:

24 hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) is the gold standard investigation to determine whether or not a patient truly has hypertension, how serious it is and also how good control of blood pressure is in treated individuals. Dr Lobo undertakes 24 hour ABPM on nearly all patients at some stage to assist in the diagnosis and management of their hypertension. This is done using state of the art equipment from Spacelabs which is regularly sent for maintenance and recalibration to the manufacturer. He also reports all 24 hour ABPMs undertaken in Bart's and The London NHS Trust (up to 20 per week) to assist Consultant colleagues from other specialties in the management of their patients with hypertension.

Home blood pressure monitoring:

An increasing body of evidence is accumulating which supports the use of home BP monitoring as a guide to treatment and prognosis of patients.

All of Dr Lobo's patients are provided with information on how to purchase a reliable, validated monitor for home use and given instruction on how best to measure and document their blood pressures whilst in the community.

Research interests

Dr Lobo has a major interest in neurogenic hypertension which is a rare from of hypertension potentially curable with neurosurgical techniques. He has presented papers on this subject at the annual scientific meeting of the British Hypertension Society.

Dr Lobo has research interests in mechanisms of secondary hypertension and in particular endocrine hypertension. He has a particular interest in the biochemical basis of low renin essential hypertension.

Dr Lobo is also involved in clinical trials and in particular studies addressing how educational and pharmacological interventions in the community can improve the prevention and delay progression of cardiovascular disease.

Specialty:

• Clinical Hypertension Specialist of the European Society of Hypertension
• Cardiovascular and General Internal Medicine
• Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics
  
  

Where can I get treatment?

NHS treatment

Private treatment