Dr. Claire Raphael
Interventional Cardiologist
1 Podcast on BackTable
Dr. Claire Raphael is an interventional cardiologist with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
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Episode # 457 • 03 Jul 2026
Insights into INOCA & ANOCA
Non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) is more common than often recognized, particularly in women and individuals with risk factors like diabetes or hypertension. Conditions such as INOCA, ANOCA, and MINOCA can cause ischemia and chest pain despite “clean” angiograms, often due to microvascular dysfunction, coronary spasms, or subtle plaque. Diagnosing these conditions requires advanced imaging or invasive studies to assess blood flow and vessel function. Treatment focuses on reducing cardiovascular risk with aspirin, statins, ACE inhibitors, or ARBs, and managing symptoms with beta-blockers or calcium channel blockers. The key takeaway: A normal angiogram doesn’t rule out disease, and these patients need a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to care.
This episode was produced as part of the CardioNerds Academy curriculum by House Einthoven under the guidance of House Chief, Dr. Apoorva Gangavelli, and Academy Program Director, Dr. Gurleen Kaur. A matching review article will be published in US Cardiology Review, the official journal of CardioNerds.
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About
Claire Raphael, M.D., Ph.D., is a cardiologist specializing in coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention. She is a certified interventional cardiologist in the United States and United Kingdom. She trained at Imperial College in London (2000-2006) and then completed internal medicine and then cardiology training at the Royal Brompton hospital and Imperial College. She completed further cardiology training at Mayo Clinic 2016-2017 and 2019-2020. She was then appointed at Cleveland Clinic Main campus as an attending interventional cardiologist 2021-2022 before returning to Mayo Clinic as an Assistant Professor and Senior Associate Consultant in 2022.
Her clinical interests are coronary intervention (stenting), myocardial infarction (MI), coronary physiology, type 2 myocardial infarction, MI with non-obstructive coronary artery disease (MINOCA), coronary microvascular dysfunction and coronary spasm. She performs coronary atherectomy, brachytherapy, intra-coronary imaging and intra-coronary physiology. In 2016, she completed a PhD in intra-coronary physiology with the Royal Brompton hospital. She has published in all of the major cardiology journals including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation and the European Heart Journal. She continues to research in type 2 myocardial infarction and coronary microvascular dysfunction. She enjoys medical education and travel.
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