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November 2018
 
Dear Colleagues,

I never stop being amazed by the diversity of topics that our faculty and fellows are interested in. Just looking at the last two months, we have published in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery and the Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology. Venturing into novel yet applicable areas are a logical extension of our core mission. Moreover, such bold moves are a major driver towards medical discovery and enable unique insights into complex systems of pathobiological processes. This unconventional way of thinking and approaching important issues has a long tradition in our group and it's something to be very proud of. Over the next few months, we will feature some of these areas that include systems biology of stress, inflammation and coronary disease, whole body deep learning, and shared profiles of cancer and cardiac disease.

Best wishes,

Udo Hoffmann MD MPH
Director, Cardiac MR PET CT Program
 
Welcome!
Lili Zhang, M.D.
Lili grew up in Beijing, China and graduated from medical school t(GET NAME)here. She then pursued a Master's degree in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Subsequently, she completed an Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She is interested in using multimodality imaging to investigate the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy. Outside of work, she likes traveling, playing badminton, billiards, and watching movies.
Grants and Awards
NASCI Idol Award
Sandeep Hedgire, M.D.
 
North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI) is a scientific, educational and professional organization dedicated to the advancement of Cardiovascular Imaging.  As a part of the society's annual meeting the organizers hold a competition titled NASCI Idol, in a format where “Diagnosis Please" meets American Idol. The participant entry is by invitation only. Each participant presents an unusual case with multi-modality imaging with interesting clinical background. At the end of the presentation a panel of "really mean" judges ask questions or make comments about the case. At the end of the session, the winner is decided by the audience vote for their favorite craziest case.  This year’s competitors came from University of Texas Health Science Center, Northwestern University, Massachusetts General Hospital and University of Rochester.  Sandeep's case of cystic AV nodal tumor won him the title of NASCI idol during the annual meeting held at Charleston, SC.  A screen shot of multimodality imaging of cystic AV nodal tumor is attached below.
Harvard Osher Center for Integrative Medicine Research Pilot Grant
PI: Ahmed Tawakol, M.D.
Title: Impact of Stress Reduction on Inflammation and Atherosclerosis
 
We will enroll individuals with increased stress into a PET/MRI study. Brain and atherosclerosis imaging will be performed before and after an 8-week stress reduction program. We plan to test the hypothesis that stress reduction reduces stress-associated neural activity and systemic inflammation, resulting in reduced arterial inflammation.
Introduction to Academic Radiology for Scientists (ITARSc) Award
PI: Parastou Eslami, PhD
Title: Radiomics of Coronary Artery Calcium in the Framingham Heart Study
 
The ITARSc  (Introduction to Academic Radiology for Scientists) Program is held at the RSNA annual meeting, where PhD scientists in imaging research and biomedical engineering are introduced to the scope of research and the keys to success in the imaging sciences. Selected participants  received a $1,000 stipend to offset travel and hotel costs as well as free registration for the RSNA annual meeting.

RSNA Travel Award for Top 250 Abstracts
PI: Parastou Eslami, PhD
Title: Radiomics of Coronary Artery Calcium in the Framingham Heart Study
 
The top-rated 232 scientific abstracts from current RSNA member were selected for the prize (500$) based on the abstract quality and the questionnaire that was filled at the time for call of abstract. 
High Impact Publications
Osborne MT, Ishai A, Hammad B, Tung B, Wang Y, Baruch A, Fayad ZA, Giles JT, Lo J, Shin LM, Grinspoon SK, Koenen KC, Pitman RK, Tawakol A
 
Psychosocial stress has been associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes; however, the neurobiological mechanisms mediating this risk and the role of adiposity in this relationship have remained uncertain. We found that increased metabolic activity of the amygdala on FDG PET/CT from 232 individuals predicted the subsequent development of diabetes independent of adiposity measurements and other typical diabetes risk factors. Furthermore, we found that higher adiposity only increases the risk of DM in the context of increased amygdalar activity. This study showed for the first time that activity in a brain region involved in the response to stress predicts diabetes, and its findings suggest novel therapeutic targets and strategies that have the potential to help manage and prevent diabetes.
Hedgire S, Krebill C, Wojtkiewicz GR, Oliveira I, Ghoshhajra BB, Hoffmann U, Harisinghani MG.
 
Atherosclerosis is a common systemic inflammatory condition. While current imaging techniques are focused on detection of atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular events like acute coronary syndrome, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease, there is increasing interest to image vascular inflammation. A team from the MGH Cardiac MR PET CT Program, Division of Abdominal Imaging and MGH Center for Systems Biology collaborated on exploring aortic wall uptake of ferumoxytol, a nanoparticle in pancreatic cancer patients following radiation therapy and compared this uptake to healthy volunteers using MRI. In patients receiving radiation therapy, the team was able to demonstrate increased accumulation of ferumoxytol as a surrogate marker of inflammation as early as 2 weeks. The uptake was substantially different in the comparison group of healthy volunteers.  This proof of concept study also showed that R2* quantification of the aorta on magnetic nanoparticle enhanced scans is feasible and offers a noninvasive, radiation-free quantitative assessment of vascular inflammation.
September and October 2018 Publications
Mild renal impairment is associated with calcified plaque parameters assessed by CT angiography in people living with HIV.
AIDS. 2018
 Cheru LT, Fitch KV, Saylor CF, Lu M, Hoffmann U, Lo J, Grinspoon SK.
Verheij VA, Scholtz JE, Meyersohn NM, Parry BA, Hoffmann U, Ghoshhajra BB, Nagurney JT.
Highlights of the thirteenth annual scientific meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr, 2018
Weir-McCall JR, Madan N, Villines TC, Shaw LJ, Abbara S, Ferencik M, Nieman K, Blankstein R, Ghoshhajra BB, Choi AD, Nicol E.
Fracassi F, Sugiyama T, Yamamoto E, Ghoshhajra B, Gin A, Albaghdadi M, Lee H, Melnitchouk S, Sundt TM, Jang IK.
Abdelbaky A, El Fakhri G, Tawakol A.
Osborne MT, Ishai A, Hammad B, Tung B, Wang Y, Baruch A, Fayad ZA, Giles JT, Lo J, Shin LM, Grinspoon SK, Koenen KC, Pitman RK, Tawakol A.
Safety and Impact of Low-Dose Methotrexate on Endothelial Function and Inflammation in Individuals with Treated Human Immunodeficiency Virus: AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study A5314.
Clin Infect Dis, 2018
Hsue PY, Ribaudo HJ, Deeks SG, Bell T, Ridker PM, Fichtenbaum C, Daar ES, Havlir D, Yeh E, Tawakol A, Lederman M, Currier JS, Stein JH.
Incidence, Predictors, and Outcomes of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Discharge Among People Living With HIV.
J Am Heart Assoc, 2018
Alvi RM, Neilan AM, Tariq N, Awadalla M, Rokicki A, Hassan M, Afshar M, Mulligan CP, Triant VA, Zanni MV, Neilan TG.
Weir-McCall JR, Madan N, Villines TC, Shaw LJ, Abbara S, Ferencik M, Nieman K, Blankstein R, Ghoshhajra BB, Choi AD, Nicol E.
Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle uptake as noninvasive marker of aortic wall inflammation on MRI: proof of concept study.
Br J Radiology, 2018
Hedgire S, Krebill C, Wojtkiewicz GR, Oliveira I, Ghoshhajra BB, Hoffmann U, Harisinghani MG.
Celeng C, Leiner T, Maurovich-Horvat P, Merkely B, de Jong P, Dankbaar JW, van Es HW, Ghoshhajra BB, Hoffmann U, Takx RAP.

Imaging Coronary Anatomy and Reducing Myocardial Infarction.
N Engl J Med, 2018
Hoffmann U, Udelson JE.
Parental non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increases risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in offspring.
Liver Int, 2018
Long MT, Gurary EB, Massaro JM, Ma J, Hoffmann U, Chung RT, Benjamin EJ, Loomba R.
Diagnostic Performance of Coronary CTA in Intermediate-to-High-Risk Patients for Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome: Results From an Emergency Department Registry.
JACC Cardiovasc Imaging, 2018
Scholtz JE, Addison D, Bittner DO, Janjua S, Foldyna B, Hedgire S, Staziaki PV, Januzzi JL Jr, Nagurney JT, Meyersohn N, Lu MT, Neilan TG, Hoffmann U, Ghoshhajra BB.
Understanding the impact of 'cost' under MACRA: a neurointerventional imperative!
J Neurointerv Surg, 2018
Spilberg G, Nicola GN, Rosenkrantz AB, Silva Iii E, Schirmer CM, Ghoshhajra BB, Choradia N, Do R, Hirsch JA.
Noninvasive Tissue Characterization of Post-Infarction Myocardium.
JACC Cardiovasc Imaging, 2018
Sosnovik DE, Tawakol A.
Case 33-2018: A 57-Year-Old Man with Confusion, Fever, Malaise, and Weight Loss.
N Engl J Med, 2018
Neilan TG, Price MC, Sanborn DY, Gainor JF, Chen A.
Gogia S, Coromilas A, Regan S, Stone L, Fourman LT, Triant VA, Neilan TG, Zanni MV.
The HEART Score for Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome in U.S. Emergency Departments.
J Am Coll Cardiol, 2018
Sharp AL, Wu YL, Shen E, Redberg R, Lee MS, Ferencik M, Natsui S, Zheng C, Kawatkar A, Gould MK, Sun BC.
Upcoming Lab Meetings
November and December Lab Meeting Schedule
175 Cambridge St, 4th Floor; 8:30-9:30am
 
Tuesday, November 6th
AHA Rehearsals 

Tuesday, November 13th
NO LAB MEETING: AHA CONFERENCE

Tuesday, November 20th
RSNA Rehearsals

Tuesday, November 27th
NO LAB MEETING: RSNA CONFERENCE

Tuesday, December 4th
Short Presentation: Mazen Albaghdadi
"In vivo Imaging of Arterial Permeability to Optimize Drug-Coated Balloon Treatment of Atherosclerosis."
Short Presentation: Amr Abdelbaky
TBD

Tuesday, December 11th
Long Presentation: Azar Radfar
"Noise Paper Presentation"

Tuesday, December 18th
Long Presentation: Magid Awadalla
"ICI Work"

Tuesday, December 25th
NO LAB MEETING: CHRISTMAS DAY
Upcoming Conferences
AHA 2018 Presentation Schedule
Chicago, IL
November 10-12, 2018
Housekeeping
Please join us and celebrate the festive season at our annual
Cardiac Imaging Holiday Party!
 
When: Wednesday, December 5th, 2018 @ 7:00pm
Where: Ward 8 Restaurant & Bar
90 N Washington St, Boston, MA 02114

RSVP through the Evite Invitation.
Questions/comments, please email Nadja at narifovic@mgh.havard.edu
Uganda
This month marked the start of a 4-year collaboration between MGH and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda. Brian Ghoshhajra and Mark Siedner visited the university hospital, where subjects will be recruited as part of the Epidemiology of coronary artery disease among people with HIV in rural sub-Saharan Africa study. The project involves program-building with our sister radiology residency at MUST, and Dr. Ghoshhajra conducted a week-long course in cardiothoracic imaging, in addition to study start-up activities. The collaboration also will involve visits from some of the residents and staff from Mbarara to MGH in the years to come.
Stats Consult Meetings
Sarah Mercaldo has availability to meet on Tuesdays between 11am - 3pm, and Wednesdays from 1pm - 4pm.
For sign-ups, please contact Devvora Olalere.






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Cardiac MR PET CT Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School · 165 Cambridge St. Ste. 400 · Boston, Ma 02114 · USA

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