Dr Karen Sheares obtained her BA (Hons) in Physiological Sciences in 1990 and continued at Oxford University Medical School graduating with the degree of BM BCh in 1993. She commenced postgraduate training and obtained her MA in 1995 and MRCP in 1996. Subsequently she started an innovative and unique specialist registrar training programme in Respiratory Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and General Medicine in Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Papworth Hospital. During this time, she was awarded a British Heart Foundation research fellowship to investigate how low oxygen levels regulate the growth of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells resulting in pulmonary hypertension. This culminated in a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2005.
  
She was appointed as Respiratory Consultant at Royal Papworth Hospital and Honorary Respiratory Consultant in Cambridge University Hospital in 2006 and obtained FRCP in 2011. She is the Respiratory expert on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Venous Thromboembolic Diseases Guidelines Group. She sat on the British Thoracic Society’s Pulmonary Circulation Specialist Advisory Group and Pulmonary Embolism Guidelines Group. Her research interest is the pathogenesis of pulmonary vascular remodelling in pulmonary hypertension particularly in the thromboembolic group.

Specialist Clinical Interests

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Acute and Chronic Thromboembolic Disease
Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension

Research Interests

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension

Education and Training

1990 BA (Hons) University of Oxford
1993 BM BCh University of Oxford
1995 MA University of Oxford
1996 MRCP London
2005 PhD University of Cambridge
2011 FRCP London

Current membership(s) of professional, national and regional bodies and university posts

General Medical Council
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
British Thoracic Society
International Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension Association
European Respiratory Society

Recent and Important Publications

Ali JM, Dunning J, Ng C, Tsui S, Cannon JE, Sheares KK, Taboada D, Toshner M, Screaton N, Pepke-Zaba J, Jenkins DP. The outcome of reoperative pulmonary endarterectomy surgery. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2018 Jan 23

Bostock S, Sheares K, Cannon J, Taboada D, Pepke-Zaba J, Toshner M. The potential effects of pregnancy in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension responding to calcium channel blockade. Eur Respir J. 2017 Dec 14;50(6)

Newnham M, Hernández-Sánchez J, Dunning J, Ng C, Tsui S, Bunclark K, Sheares K, Taboada D, Toshner M, Pepke-Zaba J, Jenkins D, Cannon J. Age should not be a barrier for pulmonary endarterectomy in carefully selected patients. Eur Respir J. 2017 Dec 7;50(6).

Sithamparanathan S, Nair A, Thirugnanasothy L, Coghlan JG, Condliffe R, Dimopoulos K, Elliot CA, Fisher AJ, Gaine S, Gibbs JSR, Gatzoulis MA, E Handler C, Howard LS, Johnson M, Kiely DG, Lordan JL, Peacock AJ, Pepke-Zaba J, Schreiber BE, Sheares KKK, Wort SJ, Corris PA; National Pulmonary Hypertension Service Research Collaboration of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Survival in portopulmonary hypertension: Outcomes of the UK National Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Registry. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2017 Jul;36(7):770-779.
 
Crawford F, Andras A, Welch K, Sheares K, Keeling D, Chappell FM. D-dimer test for excluding the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Aug 5;(8):CD010864.

Charalampopoulos A, Gibbs JS, Davies RJ, Gin-Sing W, Murphy K, Sheares KK, Pepke-Zaba J, Jenkins DP, Howard LS. Exercise physiological responses to drug treatments in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2016 Sep 1;121(3):623-8.
 
Cannon JE, Su L, Kiely DG, Page K, Toshner M, Swietlik E, Treacy C, Ponnaberanam A, Condliffe R, Sheares K, Taboada D, Dunning J, Tsui S, Ng C, Gopalan D, Screaton N, Elliot C, Gibbs S, Howard L, Corris P, Lordan J, Johnson M, Peacock A, MacKenzie-Ross R, Schreiber B, Coghlan G, Dimopoulos K, Wort SJ, Gaine S, Moledina S, Jenkins DP, Pepke-Zaba J. Dynamic Risk Stratification of Patient Long-Term Outcome After Pulmonary Endarterectomy: Results From the United Kingdom National Cohort. Circulation. 2016 May 3;133(18):1761-71.
Southwood M, MacKenzie Ross RV, Kuc RE, Hagan G, Sheares KK, Jenkins DP, Goddard M, Davenport AP, Pepke-Zaba J. Endothelin ETA receptors predominate in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
Life Sci. 2016 Aug 15;159:104-110.
 
Taboada D, Pepke-Zaba J, Jenkins DP, Berman M, Treacy CM, Cannon JE, Toshner M, Dunning JJ, Ng C, Tsui SS, Sheares KK. Outcome of pulmonary endarterectomy in symptomatic chronic thromboembolic disease.
Eur Respir J. 2014 Dec;44(6):1635-45

Berman M, Gopalan D, Sharples L, Screaton N, Maccan C, Sheares K, Pepke-Zaba J, Dunning J, Tsui S, Jenkins DP. Right ventricular reverse remodeling after pulmonary endarterectomy: magnetic resonance imaging and clinical and right heart catheterization assessment. Pulm Circ. 2014 Mar;4(1):36-44.

Ling Y, Johnson MK, Kiely DG, Condliffe R, Elliot CA, Gibbs JS, Howard LS, Pepke-Zaba J, Sheares KK, Corris PA, Fisher AJ, Lordan JL, Gaine S, Coghlan JG, Wort SJ, Gatzoulis MA, Peacock AJ. Changing demographics, epidemiology, and survival of incident pulmonary arterial hypertension: results from the pulmonary hypertension registry of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2012 Oct 15;186(8):790-6.

Toshner M, Suntharalingam J, Fesler P, Soon E, Sheares KK, Jenkins D, White P, Morrell NW, Naeije R, Pepke-Zaba J. Occlusion pressure analysis role in partitioning of pulmonary vascular resistance in CTEPH. Eur Respir J. 2012 Sep;40(3):612-7

Berman M, Hardman G, Sharples L, Pepke-Zaba J, Sheares K, Tsui S, Dunning J, Jenkins DP. Pulmonary endarterectomy: outcomes in patients aged >70. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2012 Jun;41(6):e154-60

Chong LY, Fenu E, Stansby G, Hodgkinson S; Guideline Development Group. Management of venous thromboembolic diseases and the role of thrombophilia testing: summary of NICE guidance. BMJ. 2012 Jun 27;344:

Lee WT, Ling Y, Sheares KK, Pepke-Zaba J, Peacock AJ, Johnson MK. Predicting survival in pulmonary arterial hypertension in the UK. Eur Respir J. 2012 Sep;40(3):604-11.

Toshner M, Suntharalingam J, Fesler P, Soon E, Sheares KK, Jenkins D, White P, Morrell NW, Naeije R, Pepke-Zaba J Occlusion pressure analysis role in partitioning of pulmonary vascular resistance in CTEPH. Eur Respir J. 2012 Sep;40(3):612-7

Gopalan D, McCann C, Sheares K, Screaton N. Imaging in pulmonary hypertension, part 3: small vessel diseases. Postgrad Med J. 2012 Jul;88(1041):397-406

McCann C, Gopalan D, Sheares K, Screaton N. Imaging in pulmonary hypertension, part 2: Large vessel diseases. Postgrad Med J. 2012 Jun;88(1040):317-25.

McCann C, Gopalan D, Sheares K, Screaton N. Imaging in pulmonary hypertension, part 1: clinical perspectives, classification, imaging techniques and imaging algorithm. Postgrad Med J. 2012 May;88(1039):271-9

Sheares KK. How do I manage a patient with suspected acute pulmonary embolism?  Clin Med. 2011 Apr;11(2):156-9.

Soon E, Doughty NJ, Treacy CM, Ross RM, Toshner M, Upton PD, Sheares K, Morrell NW, Pepke-Zaba J. Log-transformation improves the prognostic value of serial NT-proBNP levels in apparently stable pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulm Circ. 2011 Apr-Jun;1(2):244-9

Soon E, Toshner M, Mela M, Grace A, Sheares K, Morrell N, Pepke-Zaba J. Risk of potentially life-threatening thyroid dysfunction due to amiodarone in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension patients. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Feb 22;57(8):997-8

Soon E, Treacy CM, Toshner MR, MacKenzie-Ross R, Manglam V, Busbridge M, Sinclair-McGarvie M, Arnold J, Sheares KK, Morrell NW, Pepke-Zaba J. Unexplained iron deficiency in idiopathic and heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension. Thorax. 2011 Apr;66(4):326-32

Freed DH, Thomson BM, Berman M, Tsui SS, Dunning J, Sheares KK, Pepke-Zaba J, Jenkins DP. Survival after pulmonary thromboendarterectomy: Effect of residual pulmonary hypertension. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2010 May 12. 

Toshner MR, Gopalan D, Suntharalingam J, Treacy C, Soon E, Sheares KK, Morrell NW, Screaton N, Pepke-Zaba J.  Pulmonary arterial size and response to sildenafil in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2010 Jun;29(6):610-5.