Clinical and Experimental Research in Cardiology

Dr. M Reza Movahed received his MD from Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany. He completed his medical residency at the University of Rochester, New York and his cardiology training at the University of South Caroline, Columbia. His final training in interventional cardiology was completed at Yale University Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut in 2000. After his training, he joined University of California Irvine as Assistant Clinical Professor and later joined University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2006 as Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology. In July 2010, Dr. Movahed was promoted to Professor of Medicine, Tenure at the University of Arizona College of Medicine due to his excellent clinical work, teaching, service and research with over 200 peer reviewed publications. He has been Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Nuclear Cardiology at the University of California, Irvine medical Center and Director of Coronary Care Unit and Medical Director of Cardiac Transplantation at the University of Arizona Medical Center. In 2007, he joined the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System for his clinical work and as the Medical Director of Heart Transplantation. In May 2012, he joined CareMore as The Regional Cardiology Director of CareMore in Arizona while keeping his teaching and research affiliation with the VA and the University of Arizona as Professor of Medicine, tenure. His major area of research is related to coronary intervention, non-invasive cardiology and cardiovascular epidemiology. He is world-renownedfor his coronary bifurcation classification known as “The Movahed Classification”He is also known for his discovery on the flattening of interventricular septum as a sign for right ventricular overload the so called “ Movahed’s sign” that can be seen during Gated SPECT studied and recently published reverse “Movahed Maneuver” that can be used for improvement of stent deliverability during difficult and tortuous vein graft interventions. He also has two cardiovascular patents issued to him. One is a device for removal of contrast from coronary sinus during coronary angiography or intervention in order to reduce contrast exposure to kidneys for prevention of contrast induced nephropathy. The other one is a method and device that can measure cross sectional lumen of a vessel using impedance sensors.  His publications include prestige’s journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Reviews, Circulation, American Journal of Medicine, Journal of American College of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Society of Echocardiography, JACC cardiovascular Intervention, JACC Imaging,  Catheterization and Cardiovascular Intervention, Journal of Invasive cardiology, Journal of Interventional Cardiology, etc. He is an editorial board member of numerous peer reviewed journals. He has been invited speaker and chair for many national and international cardiology conventions and conferences.  He is Board Certified in Cardiovascular disease, Echocardiography, Advanced Heart failure/Transplantation, Nuclear Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology.

Research: Interventional Cardiology, Echocardiography, Non Invasive carduiology and Atrila fibrilations

Prof. Shehab Mahmoud Abd El-kader, PT, MPT, PhD in physical therapy for cardiopulmonary, metabolic, women health, and geriatrics, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, Egypt, since 2000 . Recent research interests include the areas of Respiratory Disorders, Metabolic Disorders ,women health, caring for older people, cardiopulmonary disorders, geriatrics, hepatology and wound care. Prof. Shehab is interested in teaching Physical therapy for patients with respiratory disorders, geriatrics, hepatology and metabolic disorders. In addition, he has published several original researches in refereed pioneer journals, published ten online textbooks with LAMBERT Academic Publishing in Germany that are available in Amazon and participated in many international conferences all over the world. Prof. Shehab is a designer and reviewer for several teaching curriculum for bachelor and master degrees in physical therapy for many universities in the middle east. Also he is a reviewer for many medical and scientific journals in addition to be a supervisor and referee for several post-graduate scientific thesis, he is an editorial board member for many international Journals. Finally, Prof. Shehab has a long history in teaching for students in the bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in physical therapy.

Research: Physical Therapy for Cardiopulmonary Disorders, Cardiovascular Disorders, Respiratory Disorders,Geriatrics, Wound Care and Women Health, Metabolic Disorders.

Prof. Fatih Yalcin is currently from the Department of Cardiology at Mustafa Kemal University, Antioch, Turkey. He is Fulbright Visiting professor in Johns Hopkins University since from 2009. He completed his M.D. in University of Akdeniz (Mediterranean), Antalya, Turkey in 1989. He was Resident in Min. of Health, Ankara Emergency Hospital, Ankara, Turkey from 1990 to 1995. He was Fellow at Leeds University Hospitals, Leeds, UK, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA. He also worked in Baskent University, Adana, Turkey. He has many publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Research Interest Novel Cardiovascular Imaging, Tissue Doppler Imaging, Live 3 DE, 3rd Generation Microscopic USG and cardiac MRI. Editorial Board Memberships: World Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, Datasets International-Radiology Journal and Austin Journal of Clinical Cardiology.

Research: Novel Cardiovascular Imaging, Tissue Doppler Imaging, Live 3 DE, 3rd Generation Microscopic USG, and cardiac MRI.

Dr. Francisco R Breijo Marquez holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Boston and Hartford (in Massachusetts and Connecticut), Got the title as a Professor of Clinical & Experimental Cardiology. He is Research director at East Boston University (on voluntary leave), Hartford University (on voluntary leave) and Murcia University.C. S. Abanilla (currently). He is usual Director of Doctoral Theses on Clinical and Experimental Cardiology. He is Advisor, Editorial Board member of several scientific and also a usual Reviewer from several Editorial committees in Institutions and Specialized Journals. He has published several Textbooks, Clinical Trials and Clinical works on his research field. Currently, he is the Research Director from all his Institutions. His research interests include study of Clinical Cardiology, Non-invasive Cardiology, Research, Clinical Research, Heart Failure, Internal Medicine, Interventional Cardiology, Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Medical Education, Clinical Trials, Electrophysiology.

Research: Clinical Cardiology, Non-invasive Cardiology, Research, Clinical Research, Heart Failure, Internal Medicine, Interventional Cardiology, Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Medical Education, Clinical Trials, Electrophysiology

Dr. Syed Aitizaz Uddin was Consultant Incharge of Cardiac Surgery section of North West Armed Forces Hospital,Tabuk, Saudi Arabia for last 8 years. Track record as operating surgeon of more than 1500 Adult Cardiac Operations. Including emergency and salvage procedures redo operations, Total Arterial Revascularization, OPCAB surgery, complex valve repairs and multiple valves replacements. Involved as a trainee in cardiac and pulmonary transplant and adult ECMO and VAD management in UK and Canada. Strong Training back ground in Congenital Heart Surgery as a Senior Registrar in Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Riyadh and then as a Fellow in Boston Children’s Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre,USA. Established the Congenital Heart Surgery Program at NWAFH Tabuk. Operating regularly neonates, infants and children for a variety of Congenital Cardiovascular malformations with complexity ranging from RACHAS group 1 to 5. Experience of more than 1000 Pediatric cardiac operations as a consultant cardiac surgeon. Good experience of chest trauma surgery, esophageal surgery and VATS procedures. Extensive experience in Cardiac Surgical Intensive care in both adult and congenital heart cases. Involved in clinical research and training of Residents and Registrars in cardiac surgery. Supervised PhD Thesis of one Perfusionist in our department. Three Registrars trained directly under my supervision in Tabuk are now working as consultant cardiac Surgeons in Saudi Arabia, Canada and Egypt.

Research: Ventricular Diastolic Function, Pathophysiology of Extracorporeal Circulation, Risk Scoring and Outcome Analysis in Adult and Congenital Cardiac Surgery.

Research: 1) Improving procedural techniques and outcomes 2) Hemodynamics of pacing 3) AF ablation

Research: Acute coronary syndromes, Aortic stenosis, Atrial fibrillation, Pulmonary embolism and Chronic ischemic heart disease.

Dr. Toyoda spent several years as a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he developed novel techniques for myocardial protection during surgically induced ischemia-reperfusion.After completing his advanced cardiac surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Toyoda completed a fellowship in cardiopulmonary transplantation and ventricular assist devices at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He joined the Pittsburgh team in 2006 and has headed the section of cardiothoracic transplantation from 2008 to 2011.Dr. Toyoda then became Professor of Surgery, Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support, Surgical Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Vice Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Research: Dr. Toyoda’s focus is on all surgical options for patients with end-stage cardiopulmonary failure including coronary bypass surgery and mechanical circulatory support for cardiogenic shock, pulmonary thromboendarterectomy for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for respiratory and circulatory failure, long-term ventricular assist device as destination therapy and bridge-to-transplantation and thoracic transplantation.

Prof. Qian has 30 years continuous experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research. He has worked in the field of circulatory assist and was instrumental in the development of the artificial heart program. He primarily developed the CFD technique which was employed for blood pump design. Dr. Qian has developed CFD techniques for application to research in studies of haemodynamics and mechanisms of rupture of cerebral aneurysms. He has developed novel methodologies for improvement cardiovascular and cerebrovascular surgical method. These have begun to be applied in pilot studies to assess the clinical applicability. The haemodynamic system has been applied to over 300 patients, and has been introduced into daily clinical diagnosis. He has over 10 years international industry R&D and management experience. Since Qian moved back to academic research from industry in 2004, he has successfully obtained over $4 million research support from government research funding. Since then, he published over 100 high quality research papers.

Research: Blood flow biomechanics in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, Cardiovascular and Neurovascular blood flow, Cardiovascular surgery support and training device, neurovascular and cardiovascular surgical and endovascular devices R&D, Computational fluid dynamics (haemodynamics), Blood flow visualization, and in-vitro, in-vivo validation and calibration tests, and Artificial organs etc.

My unique background and training as an internist, cardiologist and maternal fetal medicine specialist should serve the purposes of the nuMoM2B network in its collaboration with the NHLBI very well. I staff women’s cardiology clinic at UCI with particular emphasis on preventive care and pregnancy related cardiac complications.  I am working closely with Dr. Shaista Malik, MD, PhD (Medical Director of Preventive Cardiology Program at UCI) to establish a comprehensive women’s cardiovascular program  at our institution.  I am ideally suited as principal investigator for the proposed research because of my unique expertise in both high risk obstetrics and cardiology. I serve on the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review Advisory Committee (PAMR) and recently reported cardiac disease being the leading cause of maternal mortality. I am privileged to have been mentored by Dr. Deborah Wing for over a decade, having first met when I was in training at Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center. She was integral in my decision-making to pursue fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine, and I am pleased to work in her Division. My own research interests lie primarily in cardiac disease in women particularly in pregnancy. I have been a collaborator with Michael Zaragoza, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the division of genetics in the department of Pediatrics, and Esther Friedrich, MD, our first combined maternal-fetal medicine fellow, in the genetics of congenital heart disease, a project which was funded by the NHLBI. I will be able to dedicate sufficient time to execution of this research project.

Research: Anticoagulation in pregnancy Critical care in obstetrics Fetal echocardiography Heart disease in pregnancy Heart disease in women Medical disorders in pregnancy

Research: Dr. Bruno Cotter research interests are General cardiology with interest in echocardiography, specifically contrast echocardiography, HIV and the Heart.

Dr. Annapaola Zito is professor in Cardiovascular Diseases Section, Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO), University of Bari, Bari, Italy. He completed his education in University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy and internship in Policlinico Umberto I Hospital, University of Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy. He is associated with Italian Medical Association and Italian Heart Association. He has several publications in open access journals.

Research: Cardiovascular Disease, Hypertension, Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Organ Transplantation, Hyperpolarization and Heart rate

Research: Dr. Masoor Kamalesh  research interests are broad based and include topics in clinical cardiology such as diabetes and heart disease, CHF, atherosclerosis, echocardiography, epidemiology of ischemic heart disease.

Professor Suleiman currently holds the Chair of Cardiac Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Bristol. Professor Suleiman is a founding member of the Bristol Heart Institute which has become one of the top cardiovascular research institutes in the UK. In 2003, the University of Bristol awarded him the higher degree of DSc in recognition of the distinction of his research. Other distinctions include being a member of the team that was awarded the UK Hospital Doctor Award for Team of the Year in Surgery and runners up for Cardiovascular Medicine, election to the executive committee of the British Society for Cardiovascular Research, elected as Fellow of both the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences and the Society of Biology. 

Research: The aims of Professor Suleiman’s research have been to investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying the damaging effects of cardiac insults and to formulate cardioprotective strategies based on interventions that oppose metabolic and ionic disturbances. 

DR. Massimo Caputo graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Naples, Italy in 1992 and specialised in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in 1998. He then worked as a cardiac surgeon at the "San Raffaele" University Hospital until the end of 1999. In 2000, he was appointed as Lecturer in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at the University of Bristol, with special interest in congenital heart disease. In the same year he obtained his higher degree "Master in Surgery" at the University of Bristol. After a fellowship in congenital heart surgery at the University of Leiden in Holland, he was appointed Senior Lecturer first and then Reader at the University of Bristol. In 2012, he obtain the Chair in Congenital Heart Surgery at the University of Bristol.

Research: Congenital heart surgery Myocardial protection and cardiopulmonary bypass strategies Stem cell therapy in congenital heart disease (CHD) Grown up patients with CHD Complex aortic root surgery Complex valve surgery

Research:  Alternative therapies for Atrial Fibrillation       Indications and role of pharmacologic therapy in the management of patients with recurrent neurocardiogenic syncope.   New Teaching Methodologies on Electrocardiology and Electrophysiology   Sleep Apnea and Cardiac Arrhythmias   Sleep Apnea in patients with permanent pacemakers, ICD and CRT   Atrial Remodeling. Atrial reversed remodeling.

Yu Huang obtained his B.Sc degree from Fudan University Shanghai Medical College in 1983. He was awarded with M.Phil (1985) and Ph.D (1988) in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge. Between 1988 and 1993, Yu Huang took up two postdoctoral research positions, the first in the University of Vermont and then in theUniversity of California, Los Angeles. He joined the Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong in late 1993. His recent focus on vascular pathophysiology of diabetes and hypertension has led to a better understanding of roles of arachidonic acid metabolites, BMP4, oxidative stress associated with activated renin-angiotensin system in endothelial dysfunction and therapeutic interventions involving adipocytes. Yu Huang has published extensively in journals such as Nature, Science, Cell Metabolism, Circulation Research, Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, Stroke, Hypertension, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, Diabetes, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, European Heart Journal, Cell Research. Yu Huang is the Founding Director (Basic Science) for the Instituteof Vascular Medicine (2007 -) of Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Frank F. Seghatol earned his MD degree from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels) in 1985. Then, he went to France and earned a University Diploma in Cardiovascular Pathology from the University Rene Descartes in Paris.He came to the US in 1996 and after completing my internship and residency in New York, and pursued a subspecialty in Cardiology in Michigan and a year of clinical research at Northwestern in Chicago. Currently Assistant Professor in cardiology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and have been in this position since 2006.

Research: Research interest is in the evaluation of left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in patients with chronic congestive heart failure using novel echocardiographic modalities such as strain and strain rate, and in the application of these techniques in subclinical left ventricular dysfunction in patients with valvular disease, and in patients with diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease.

Research: Ischemic Preconditioning and Ischemic Postconditioning, Estrogen and its Effects on Hypertension and Endothelial Function, Carcinoid Heart Disease, Exercise, Endothelial Dysfunction, Gender Differences in Cardiomyopathy, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy. 

Research: Reasearch Interests include maximization of institutional participation in clinical trials and patient registries dealing with heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, heart transplant, and mechanical circulartory support.

Research:  Cardiac arrhythmias and especially cardiac pacing and resynchronization.  

Dr. Lufang Zhou is currently working as an Assistant Professor at The University of Alabama, Birmingham. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2006. He then completed the postdoctoral training in cardiology and biomedical engineering in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received many honors and awards. He published various articles in international journals.  

Research: Dr. Lufang Zhou research interests are in the area of pathophysiology and therapeutics of oxidative stress related to diseases of mitochondrial origin as it pertains to cardiovascular and metabolic disease such as heart failure and diabetes.

Research:  Intravascular imaging, Platelet function and cardiac support devices.

Marion Hofmann Bowman is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. She is a physician scientist at the University of Chicago and is interested in vascular inflammation. Clinically, Dr. Hofmann is a member of the "Aortic Center" at the University of Chicago and provides care for patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms and bicuspid aortic valve.

Research: Marion Hofmann Bowman clinical interest is in bicuspid aortic valve, as this is a common congenital heart disease and often associated with calcific aortic valve disease and thoracic aortic aneurysms. 

Dr.  Ion S. Jovin is an interventional cardiologist and the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at the McGuire Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Richmond, VA. He is an associate professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, also in Richmond. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology and interventional cardiology. He is a manuscript reviewer for numerous journals and a member of the editorial board of 'Aorta' and 'Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy'. He has published numerous articles and abstracts in leading scientific journals.

Research: Dr.  Ion S. Jovin’s research interest includes: Vascular biology Thrombosis and hemostasis Coronary and peripheral interventions.

Dr. Zhong Liang, Ph.D. is Staff Scientist in the National Heart Centre Singapore, Director of Bioengineering, National Heart Research Institute of Singapore, and Assistant Professor in the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, National University of Singapore. He is specializing in cardiovascular mechanics and noninvasive cardiac imaging.Dr. Zhong graduated with a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Management from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Nanyang Technological University. He completed a research fellowship in Fluid Mechanics Engineering at Nanyang Technological University and visiting fellowship in Institute of Cardiology, University of Bologna, Italy.

Research: Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging, Diastolic Heart Failure, Pulmonary Hypertension, Multi-Physics (Fluids and Solids) Modeling, Coronary Circulation in Health and Disease

Research: Mechanical Circulatory Support Heart Failure Heart Transplant Cardiac regenerative therapies.

Research: Pathogenesis of obesity and its related complications including type 2 diabetes and vascular dysfunction, with particular interest in action and secretion of insulin.  

Gordon L Fung is a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Clinical Health Sciences Tract. In addition to an active clinical practice in consultative general clinical cardiology, he also am medical director of the Electrocardiography Lab at Moffit/Long Hospitals, and the nation's first UCSF Asian Heart & Vascular Center located on the Mount Zion Campus on the 2nd floor of the Hellman Building.

Research: Gordon L Fung research interests are in health disparities primarily involving the Asian/Pacific Islander populations as well as clinical hypertension and prevention. He currently PI of two Phase III industry sponsored trials with Roche Labs. The first one is with dalcetrapib - a CETP inhibitor that can raise HDL-Cholesterol in the ACS patient. The second is ALECARDIO which is evaluating a combined-balanced ppar alpha/gamma agent in type 2 diabetic patients presenting with ACS to the hospital. 

Dr. Abolfazl Dohaei is currently working as a Researcher in the Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA. He has completed his Ph.D. in Affiliated hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences Residency, cardiology in the year of 2013-2016. He did his post-graduation in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the year of 2005-2011.He actively participated in many international conferences committee. He is an Editorial Board member in many international journals and also acts as a Reviewer for many journals. He has several publications in his name. He is also one of the members of many International societies.

Research: Heart failure Pulmonary Hypertension Systemic hypertension Preventive Cardiology Echocardiography Angiography and Intervention