Understand your heart.
Clear cardiology information and accessible specialist advice.
This website explains common heart symptoms, tests and conditions in straightforward language. It also provides information about my independent face-to-face cardiology clinic in London.
What would you like help understanding?
Start with the symptom that brought you here.
Chest pain
When to call 999, what settled symptoms can mean, and what happens during assessment.
Palpitations
Skipped beats, thuds and flutters — what they are and when they matter.
Breathlessness
When breathlessness is a heart symptom and when it is not.
High blood pressure
What the numbers mean and what changes them.
Dizziness and fainting
Common faint patterns, red flags, and why lying flat can help.
Swelling of the legs
Common causes, urgent patterns, and when the heart may be involved.
Understand your heart tests
If you have been given a result and not much explanation, start here.
Your ECG report
A plain-English translation of the terms that appear on an ECG.
Heart rhythm monitoring
Holter, week-long and symptom-triggered recorders, and which suits which pattern.
Interactive tools
Symptom triage, heart-rate interpreter, trigger explorer and more.
Echocardiogram reports
A plain-English translation of the terms on an echo report.
Blood tests in cardiology
What each test measures and why a cardiologist asks for it.
CT coronary angiography
What the scan involves, what it feels like, and what it can show.
Common heart conditions
Atrial fibrillation
The most common significant heart rhythm disturbance, and what can change it.
Ectopic beats
Early beats, and why the thud is the beat afterwards.
Coronary artery disease
What narrowing means, why exertion is the classic trigger, and what is treatable.
Heart failure
What the words actually mean, and why they are less frightening than they sound.
Valve disease
Murmurs, leaky valves, narrowed valves and what severity words mean.
High cholesterol
How to read the full cholesterol panel, not just the headline number.
Face-to-face Cardiology Clinic — Finchley Road, London
I run a small independent general cardiology clinic for people aged 16 and over.
Appointments are 30 minutes and include a cardiac history, clinical examination, review of relevant previous heart tests, a clear explanation and plan, and a letter to your GP.
There is no expectation that you pay anything for your consultation.
Your existing NHS care remains available to you.
Evidence and sources
Where this site states a number, it names the study it came from and links the source. Where the evidence is weak or uncertain, it says so rather than rounding it up into confidence.
About Dr Mahmood Ahmad
Dr Mahmood Ahmad, MRCP(UK) is a Specialist in Cardiology and works in NHS cardiology. He is registered with the General Medical Council with a licence to practise.
GMC No. 6071047 — Check the GMC Register