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AT-NCIGT - The National Center for Advanced Technologies for Image Guided Therapy

Viviany R. Taqueti, MD, MPH: Quantitative PET-CT Imaging for Diagnosis and Management of Ischemic Heart Disease and Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction

Viviany R. Taqueti
Viviany R. Taqueti, MD, MPH
Director, Cardiac Stress Laboratory
Assistant Professor of Radiology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School

Abstract

Conventional approaches to diagnostic testing in stable ischemic heart disease (IHD), designed primarily for the identification of obstructive coronary artery disease, has led to over-testing patients without differentiating those who are truly at risk. This has been especially concerning given the rise in cardiovascular mortality observed for both women and men over the last decade. In this seminar, we will review limitations in conventional diagnostic and management approaches for IHD, describe how novel imaging tools are being applied to understand prognosis of diffuse CAD and coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) in symptomatic patients, and consider management implications of IHD and CMD in specific populations, including those with obesity and metabolic disease, nonobstructive CAD and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Short bio

Dr. Taqueti is a cardiologist, cardiovascular imager and clinical investigator who is Director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. She is a physician-scientist with a translational focus on applying advanced imaging technology to better phenotype cardiovascular disease outcomes.

Dr. Taqueti graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in biochemical sciences, and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School through the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology with a focus in immunology. She completed residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and clinical and research fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Following clinical training, she obtained a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health with an emphasis on epidemiology, and executive education training in healthcare leadership from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Taqueti balances clinical care, research and teaching responsibilities. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Echocardiography and Nuclear Cardiology. She is one of 22 elected members of the Faculty Council at Harvard Medical School, an associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and an advisor at Broadview Ventures, a mission-driven fund for impact investing in cardiovascular disease. She is Chair of the Scientific Publications Committee of the American College of Cardiology, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and a former section editor at the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Her academic career centers on patient-oriented research and investigation of clinical questions in novel mechanistic ways to improve health. Her clinical and research interests include chronic ischemic heart disease, imaging and quantification of coronary blood flow, inflammation, obesity and cardiometabolic disease, aging and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, with a special emphasis on coronary microvascular disease (CMD). Her list of scholarly publications comprises over 70 scientific reports with more than 2500 citations and an h-index of 25, and includes work published in the top cardiovascular journals Circulation, JACC, European Heart Journal, JAMA Cardiology and in The New England Journal of Medicine. She is a contributing author for multiple book chapters on multimodality imaging, heart disease in women and coronary microvascular dysfunction, including Hurst’s The Heart and a companion volume to Braunwald’s Heart Disease. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, and given over 100 invited scientific lectures at regional, national and international academic conferences. She is PI of multiple national grants, co-investigator for CIRT-CFR, an NHLBI-sponsored imaging ancillary study of the Cardiovascular Inflammation Reduction Trial (CIRT), and a member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board and Clinical Endpoint Adjudication Committee for national and international trials, including WARRIOR, CANTOS and PROMINENT. Her research has been supported by continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health, as well as by the American College of Cardiology Foundation, the Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Center, the Brigham Research Institute and the Office of the President at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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