Dr. Rizwan Ahmad, The Ohio State University

"Toward “push-button” cardiac MRI (CMR)"

ABSTRACT

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims more lives and costs more than any other diagnostic group in the USA. Over 780,000 deaths (1 out of every 3) annually in the USA result from CVD of all kinds. Considering the prevalence of CVD and the limitations of existing diagnostic tools, there is a critical need for non-invasive methods to diagnose CVD and guide therapy. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance imaging (CMR) has long offered the promise of a single, non-invasive test to provide a comprehensive assessment of the cardiovascular system. Although there are competing modalities for nearly every CMR application, there is no single imaging modality that can match the versatility and accuracy of CMR. A single CMR exam can accurately evaluate cardiovascular structure, function, morphology, perfusion, viability, and hemodynamics. Despite the growing evidence of its advantages over other modalities and its potential as a “one-stop shop” diagnostic tool, the role of CMR in clinical cardiology remains limited. The major impediment to wider usage of CMR is the inefficient acquisition that lasts for more than an hour, fails in the presence of arrhythmia, and requires multiple breath-holds.

We recently proposed a new “push button” paradigm to transform the existing CMR acquisition into a more efficient protocol. The new paradigm (i) eliminates the need to breath-hold, (ii) is effective in patients with arrhythmia, (iii) simplifies the acquisition protocol, (iv) reduces the scan time, (v) provides whole-heart coverage for perfusion imaging, and (vi) provides spatial and temporal resolutions that rival the resolutions provided by segmented breath-held acquisition. By making the entire CMR exam faster, easier for both patient and operator, and reliable over a broader spectrum of patients, this new paradigm will fulfill the promise of CMR as the most comprehensive and effective clinical imaging modality available. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the data acquisition and processing techniques that are the building blocks of this new paradigm. 

BIO

Dr. Ahmad is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The Ohio State University. He received his PhD in ECE from The Ohio State University in 2007, specializing in the area of signal processing with application to medical imaging. He is interested in bringing engineering innovations to advance the field of biomedical imaging, especially noninvasive cardiovascular imaging. His research expertise encompasses biomedical imaging, tomographic reconstruction, multifunctional/multimodal imaging, digital signal processing, linear and nonlinear inverse problems, mathematical modeling, and biomedical instrumentation, with application to magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging. Dr. Ahmad is the recipient of 2011 Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Award. He is currently leading three NIH funded projects.