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SNM Press Releases
April 30, 2009
SNM Symposium Highlights Advances in Cardiovascular Imaging
Symposium on Multimodality Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Brings Leaders from Multiple Scientific Disciplines Together to Examine New Imaging Techniques with Life-saving Potential for Heart Patients
The SNM Symposium on Multimodality Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging convened today, April 30, before a packed audience at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., to probe new and potentially life-saving cardiovascular molecular imaging techniques and methods for controlling the escalating costs of health care. The meeting is hosted by SNM's Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence (MICoE) and is supported by the NIH and multiple other partners.
Speakers from the fields of medicine, chemistry, engineering, physics, molecular biology, cardiovascular physiology and imaging sciences focused on rapidly evolving scientific findings and stressed the need for interdisciplinary collaborations to explore the potential of this promising area of medicine.
Cardiologists Affirm Importance of Noninvasive Imaging Agents in Assessing Organ Damage Following Heart Attack and Issue a Call for Multidisciplinary Collaboration of Researchers, Scientists and Physicians
"Noninvasive, targeted molecular imaging can facilitate the evaluation and management of cardiovascular disease, provide a basis for patient stratification and increase the accuracy of early detection," said Albert J. Sinusas, M.D., professor of medicine and diagnostic radiology and director of cardiovascular nuclear imaging, Yale University School of Medicine, who started the day with an introduction and symposium overview. "Molecular imaging will be essential for the cardiovascular community to truly achieve personalized medicine. In bringing together leading researchers in the field, the symposium has helped chart the direction of cardiovascular molecular imaging for the next decade."
Presenters spoke in-depth about the important need to educate the scientific and clinical communities on the potential of targeted cardiovascular molecular imaging, provided an overview of critical issues related to the development of new imaging agents and techniques, and encouraged basic research and development of clinical applications in cardiovascular imaging. Experts in cardiology provided detailed descriptions of the potential for these techniques to improve our understanding and management of critical cardiovascular processes, such as heart attack, atherosclerosis, angiogenesis, ischemia and cardiomyopathies. Speakers emphasized the potential for stem cell imaging to impact the development of new therapies for patients with damaged or failing hearts.
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| Joseph Wu, M.D., Ph.D. discusses cardiac stem cell biology. |
"There is a growing body of evidence that stem cells may be efficacious for restoring cardiac function following heart injury as shown in multiple animal and human studies over the past few years," said Joseph Wu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and radiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "However, our understanding of cardiac stem cell biology is still in its infancy, and basic questions related to cell survival, function and mechanisms of improvement are still unknown. The rapid translation into clinical medicine has left many questions unresolved—I believe underscoring even further the importance and value of molecular-based imaging modalities."
Other speakers addressed the need for fostering collaboration among scientists working in related fields and stimulating interactions between junior scientists and more established investigators—in particular, bringing together basic scientists and imaging scientists to conduct multidisciplinary translational research on cellular and molecular imaging.
Douglas Losordo, M.D., Discusses Growing Need to Address Aging Population's Heart Health
Douglas W. Losordo, M.D., director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and program in cardiovascular regenerative medicine at Northwestern University, opened the day's presentations by underscoring the importance of developing individualized molecular imaging techniques to address the needs of patients who remain severely symptomatic despite having exhausted conventional medical therapy and mechanical repair of their heart and vascular system.
"Particularly as the population ages, the needs of patients for individual and highly targeted treatments will become more acute," said Losordo. "Molecular imaging procedures and therapies have enormous potential to aid a broader patient base as well as individuals for whom conventional treatments have failed. The evolution of a targeted strategy, such as delivery of progenitor cells, will require an ongoing dialogue among clinicians, scientists, regulators and industry to take full advantage of advances in our understanding of the biology of these processes and their appropriate application to patients."
Dr. Losordo's research team has executed the true translational medicine paradigm: identifying novel therapeutics in the laboratory, developing these strategies in small and large animal models and designing and executing first-in-human clinical trials.
