Dr. Adaeze Okonkwo

Dr. Adaeze Okonkwo is one of Nigeria's foremost cardiologists, practising at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) — the country's premier academic medical centre and the busiest cardiac facility in sub-Saharan West Africa. Over a 22-year career, she has become a nationally recognised leader in interventional cardiology, heart failure management, and cardiac imaging. She trained at the University of Lagos and at LUTH itself, later attaining Fellowship of the West African College of Physicians and completing additional cardiology subspecialty training. Her clinical caseload at LUTH's cardiac centre encompasses the full spectrum of adult cardiac disease, from hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease — both highly prevalent in Nigeria's urban population — to the conditions that characterise African cardiac disease, including peripartum cardiomyopathy and rheumatic heart disease. She performs coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention, echocardiography, and pacemaker implantation in LUTH's catheterisation laboratory. Dr. Okonkwo is a bilingual practitioner in English and Igbo, giving her strong rapport with patients from Southeastern Nigeria. She is a member of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) and is actively involved in advocacy for improved access to cardiac care across the West African region.

Dr. Okonkwo obtained her MBBS from the University of Lagos College of Medicine, graduating with distinction. She completed her specialist training in Internal Medicine at LUTH, attaining Fellowship of the West African College of Physicians (FWACP) before pursuing subspecialty training in Cardiology. She undertook her cardiology fellowship at LUTH's cardiac centre under the supervision of LUTH's senior cardiologists, gaining experience across the full range of cardiac investigations and interventional procedures. She supplemented her training with an MSc in Cardiology through a distance learning programme at the University of London, deepening her grounding in cardiac physiology, imaging, and clinical trial evidence. She has attended catheterisation laboratory training programmes in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Okonkwo's interventional cardiology work focuses on coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute and chronic coronary artery disease. She has performed hundreds of diagnostic catheterisations and PCI procedures at LUTH's catheterisation laboratory, which operates under significant resource pressure given the hospital's patient volume. She has particular expertise in echocardiography and is one of LUTH's lead echocardiographers for both transthoracic and transesophageal studies. Her heart failure clinic manages patients with ischaemic, hypertensive, and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy, including the peripartum cardiomyopathy that is disproportionately prevalent in Nigerian women and represents a major cause of maternal cardiac death. She implants permanent pacemakers and manages device follow-up, and she performs pericardiocentesis for tamponade. She also leads LUTH's rheumatic heart disease assessment programme, managing patients who require cardiac surgery referral.

Dr. Okonkwo has published research on peripartum cardiomyopathy outcomes in Nigeria in peer-reviewed journals including the European Journal of Heart Failure and the Cardiovascular Journal of Africa. She has contributed to multi-country PASCAR studies on the epidemiology of hypertensive heart disease and heart failure in sub-Saharan Africa. She is an investigator on the THESUS-HF (Sub-Saharan Africa Survey of Heart Failure) registry and has presented data from the Nigerian cohort at international cardiology congresses. Her research on outcomes of PCI in a low-resource Nigerian setting has been cited in discussions of cardiac care equity in Africa.

LUTH is a major destination for patients from across Nigeria, the West African diaspora, and neighbouring countries including Benin, Cameroon, and Ghana who seek high-quality cardiac care in Lagos. Dr. Okonkwo has extensive experience consulting international patients requiring cardiac assessment, echocardiography reporting, and second-opinion consultations for complex cardiac conditions diagnosed abroad. She communicates exclusively in English with international patients. Appointment bookings for outpatient cardiology consultation at LUTH can be made through LUTH's specialist outpatient department. She also offers second-opinion consultations for diaspora Nigerians who wish to discuss cardiac diagnoses received in the UK, USA, or Europe before returning to Nigeria for follow-up care.

Dr. Okonkwo has received the Nigerian Cardiac Society's distinguished service award for her contributions to interventional cardiology and cardiac education in Nigeria. She has been recognised by PASCAR as a key investigator in African cardiac research and has been awarded a competitive travel fellowship to present her research at the European Society of Cardiology congress. LUTH has recognised her as one of the cardiac department's most productive clinician-researchers, and she has been cited by the West African College of Physicians as an exemplary fellow in the Cardiology subspecialty.