Advanced Cardiac Imaging

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute implemented the first dedicated cardiac computed tomography (CT) scanner in Canada in 2006. Since this time, the cardiac CT program has performed >10,000 studies. Through our cardiac CT research, we seek to better understand the clinical utility of the technology and how it might improve patient care.

Research is focused on: a) accuracy, b) patient outcomes, 3) cost  and cost-effectiveness and d) safety.

Director

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Projects

Themes of Current CT Research

CT Coronary Angiography

  1. Diagnostic accuracy
  2. Prognostic value
  3. Plaque characterization, quantification and progression
  4. Functional assessment of anatomical stenosis
  5. Downstream resource utilization
  6. Appropriateness of use

CT Ventricular Function

  1. Low dose LVEF
  2. Valve assessment and function
  3. Viability assessment

Themes of Current Nuclear Cardiology / Cardiac PET / Cardiac MRI Research /

Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

  1. Accuracy
  2. Prognosis
  3. Application in specific patient populations

Inflammation Imaging

  1. Coronary inflammation
  2. Cardiac inflammation
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Staff

Current Team Members:

Research Assistants and Coordinators:

Sandina Jamieson
Yeung Yam
Farrah Ahmed

Current Research Fellows:

  1. Atif Alzahrani - Cardiac Imaging  (Cardiac CT, Cardiac MR, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET)
  2. Abdul Alqahtani  – Cardiac CT
  3. Chadi Ayoub  – Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET)
  4. Siok Ping Lim - Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET
  5. Punitha Arasaratnam - Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET/ Cardiac CT
  6. Manuja Premaratne - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET)
  7. Hiroshi Ohira – Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac Ct, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET)

Previous Research Fellows:

  1. Masoud Sadreddini (Netherlands) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) - 2013.
  2. Siamak Aliyary (Netherlands) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2012-13.
  3. Ibraheem Alharbi (Saudi Arabia) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2012-14.
  4. Ahmed Aljizeeri (Saudi Arabia) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2012-13.
  5. Taylor Dowsley (USA) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2011-13.
  6. Girish Dwivedi (United Kingdom) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2011-13.
  7. Brian McArdle (Ireland) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2011-14.
  8. Fawaz Al-Mutairi (Saudi Arabia) – Nuclear Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology – 2011-13.
  9. Oana-Maria Simion (Canada) – Cardiac CT and Interventional Cardiology – 2010-12.
  10. Gary Small (Scotland) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2010-12.
  11. Ilias Mylonas (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2010-12.
  12. Mikael Trottier (Canada) - Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET – 2010-11.
  13. Mustapha Kazmi (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2010-11.
  14. Nadine Gauthier (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2009-11.
  15. Vikas Tandon (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2009-11.
  16. George Youssef (Egypt) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2009-11.
  17. Halia Al-Sheri (Saudi Arabia) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2009-11.
  18. Cecilia Ziadi (Argentina) – Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2008-10.
  19. Malek Kass (Canada) – Cardiac CT and Interventional Cardiology – 2008-10.
  20. Arun Abraham (New Zealand) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2007-09.
  21. Abdul-Aziz Alghamdi (Saudi Arabia) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2007-09.
  22. Iftikhar Ali (USA) – Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET – 2007-10.
  23. Nisha D’Mello (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2007-08.
  24. Paul Galiwango (Canada) - Cardiac Imaging (Cardiac CT, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac PET) – 2007-08.
  25. Dino Shukla (Canada) – Cardiac CT and Interventional Cardiology - 2006-08.
  26. Abdul-Aziz Almgrahi (Saudi Arabia) - Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET – 2006-08.
  27. Socrates Vosoris (Canada) - Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET – 2006-07.
  28. Micheal Ling (Canada) - Cardiac CT – 2006.
  29. Hatem Nasr (Egypt) - Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET – 2004-06.

Collaborating Investigators:

Drs. Kathy Ascah, MD, Rob Beanlands, MD, Luc Beauchesne, MD, Ian Burwash, MD, Kwan-Leung Chan, MD, Li Chen, MD, Aun Yeong Chong, MD, Thais Coutinho, MD, Ross Davies, MD, Rob deKemp, PhD, Carole Dennie, MD, Sandy Dick, MD, Girish Dwivedi (MD, PhD), Renee Hessian, MD, Joao Inacio, MD, Ran Klein, PhD, Peter Liu, MD, Ruth McPherson (MD, PhD), Elena Pena, MD, Terrence Ruddy, MD, Dr. Rebecca Thornhill, PhD, George A. Wells, PhD, Glenn Wells, PhD, Alomghir Hossain, PhD.

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Available positions

Opportunities

To enquire about available positions, please submit your CV with a cover letter detailing what you can bring to the team.

Contact:
@email

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Publications

See current publications list at PubMed.

Selected publications:

  1. Chow BJ, Small G, Yam Y, Chen L, McPherson R, Achenbach S, Al-Mallah M, Berman DS, Budoff MJ, Cademartiri F, Callister TQ, Chang HJ, Cheng VY, Chinnaiyan K, Cury R, Delago A, Dunning A, Feuchtner G, Hadamitzky M, Hausleiter J, Karlsberg RP, Kaufmann PA, Kim YJ, Leipsic J, LaBounty T, Lin F, Maffei E, Raff GL, Shaw LJ, Villines TC, Min JK; on behalf/for the CONFIRM Investigators. Prognostic and Therapeutic Implications of Statin and Aspirin Therapy in Individuals With Nonobstructive Coronary Artery Disease: Results From the CONFIRM (Coronary CT Angiography Evaluation For Clinical Outcomes: An International Multicenter Registry) Registry. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2015 Feb 12.
  2. Mc Ardle BA, Davies RA, Chen L, Small GR, Ruddy TD, Dwivedi G, Yam Y, Haddad H, Mielniczuk LM, Stadnick E, Hessian R, Guo A, Beanlands RS, deKemp RA, Chow BJ. Prognostic value of rubidium-82 positron emission tomography in patients after heart transplant. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014 Nov;7(6):930-7.
  3. Chow BJ, Dorbala S, Di Carli MF, Merhige ME, Williams BA, Veledar E, Min JK, Pencina MJ, Yam Y, Chen L, Anand SP, Ruddy TD, Berman DS, Shaw LJ, Beanlands RS. Prognostic value of PET myocardial perfusion imaging in obese patients. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014 Mar;7(3):278-87.
  4. Small GR, Ruddy TD, Simion O, Alam M, Fuller L, Chen L, Beanlands RS, Chow BJ. Lessons from the Tc-99m shortage: implications of substituting Tl-201 for Tc-99m single-photon emission computed tomography. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2013 Sep;6(5):683-91.
  5. Pen A, Yam Y, Chen L, Dennie C, McPherson R, Chow BJ. Discordance between Framingham Risk Score and atherosclerotic plaque burden. Eur Heart J. 2013 Apr;34(14):1075-82.
  6. Dwivedi G, Al-Shehri H, deKemp RA, Ali I, Alghamdi AA, Klein R, Scullion A, Ruddy TD, Beanlands RS, Chow BJ. Scar imaging using multislice computed tomography versus metabolic imaging by F-18 FDG positron emission tomography: a pilot study. Int J Cardiol. 2013 Sep 30;168(2):739-45.
  7. Lee AK, Yam Y, Chow BJ. Normalcy rate of computed tomographic coronary angiography. Int J Cardiol. 2012 May 31;157(2):273-4.
  8. Small GR, Yam Y, Chen L, Ahmed O, Al-Mallah M, Berman DS, Cheng VY, Chinnaiyan K, Raff G, Villines TC, Achenbach S, Budoff MJ, Cademartiri F, Callister TQ, Chang HJ, Delago A, Dunning A, Hadamitzky M, Hausleiter J, Kaufmann P, Lin F, Maffei E, Min JK, Shaw LJ, Chow BJ. Prognostic assessment of coronary artery bypass patients with 64-slice computed tomography angiography: anatomical information is incremental to clinical risk prediction. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Nov 29;58(23):2389-95.
  9. Tandon V, Hall D, Yam Y, Al-Shehri H, Chen L, Tandon K, Beanlands RS, Wells GA, Ruddy TD, Chow BJ.  Rates of downstream invasive coronary angiography and revascularization: computed tomographic coronary angiography vs. Tc-99m single photon emission computed tomography. Eur Heart J. 2012 Mar;33(6):776-82.
  10. Chow BJ, Small G, Yam Y, Chen L, Achenbach S, Al-Mallah M, Berman DS, Budoff MJ, Cademartiri F, Callister TQ, Chang HJ, Cheng V, Chinnaiyan KM, Delago A, Dunning A, Hadamitzky M, Hausleiter J, Kaufmann P, Lin F, Maffei E, Raff GL, Shaw LJ, Villines TC, Min JK; CONFIRM Investigators. Incremental prognostic value of cardiac computed tomography in coronary artery disease using CONFIRM: COroNary computed tomography angiography evaluation for clinical outcomes: an InteRnational Multicenter registry. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2011 Sep;4(5):463-72.
  11. Chow BJ, Ahmed O, Small G, Alghamdi AA, Yam Y, Chen L, Wells GA. Prognostic value of CT angiography in coronary bypass patients. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2011 May;4(5):496-502.
  12. Chow BJ, Freeman MR, Bowen JM, Levin L, Hopkins RB, Provost Y, Tarride JE, Dennie C, Cohen EA, Marcuzzi D, Iwanochko R, Moody AR, Paul N, Parker JD, O'Reilly DJ, Xie F, Goeree R. Ontario multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography study: field evaluation of diagnostic accuracy. Arch Intern Med. 2011 Jun 13;171(11):1021-9.
  13. Chow BJ, Kass M, Gagné O, Chen L, Yam Y, Dick A, Wells GA. Can differences in corrected coronary opacification measured with computed tomography predict resting coronary artery flow? J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011 Mar 15;57(11):1280-8.
  14. Abunassar JG, Yam Y, Chen L, D'Mello N, Chow BJ. Usefulness of the Agatston score = 0 to exclude ischemic cardiomyopathy in patients with heart failure. Am J Cardiol. 2011 Feb 1;107(3):428-32.
  15. Chow BJ, Wells GA, Chen L, Yam Y, Galiwango P, Abraham A, Sheth T, Dennie C, Beanlands RS, Ruddy TD. Prognostic value of 64-slice cardiac computed tomography severity of coronary artery disease, coronary atherosclerosis, and left ventricular ejection fraction. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010 Mar 9;55(10):1017-28. 
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