Interventions
angiography image
- Ongoing development and evaluation of cardiac surgery methods including:
- alternative conduits in coronary artery bypass grafts and alternative heart valve implants
- reducing the trauma associated with intervention, growing from early work on myocardial protection and continuing with evolving minimally invasive approaches to bypass and valve replacement procedures (Fremes)
- Development and testing of imaging methods for assessment during interventions including optical fluorescence imaging of grafts, intravascular ultrasound of the arterial wall during angioplasty, and ultrasound studies of valve repair (Burns, Fremes, Wright)
- Emerging focus on stem cell therapies for myocardial injury, including:
- basic studies of chemoattractants for stem cells to damaged regions
- MR-guided delivery of stem cells to infarct borders imaging assessment of therapy outcome
- Evaluation of defibrillators and pacemakers for treatment of electrophysiological pathologies; emerging work in less invasive electrophysiological mapping and ablative approaches to better understand and manage complex arrhythmias and conduction problems (Crystal, Lau)
- Studies in pharmacological management for hypertension and improved methods for blood pressure monitoring of hypertension patients (Myers)
