Yuchi Han, Perelman School of Medicine Ultrafast cardiac MRI in India

This project will organize a four-day cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) scanning and training event at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences-Bangalore (SSSIHMS), per year over three years. CMR is an advanced imaging technology that has been proven to change patient management including diagnosis and treatment plan in up to 65% of patients imaged both in Europe and United States. However, the utilization of this technology is extremely low in populated countries, such as India and China, due to long scan time and lack of trained providers. We propose a structured program consisting of ultrafast scans allowing a significant increase in throughput on the scanner, and training of local CMR physicians to be independent interpreters over the course of four days. Training on additional cases will be conducted remotely throughout the year. We will focus on patients with rheumatic heart disease, tuberculosis, and coronary artery disease in the young as these are rising heart disease burden in the subcontinent but are not well represented in the United States, which is the research focus of this project. This venture will increase the utilization of CMR by maximizing throughput on the scanner, and provide access to care to a large number of patients by training local providers, thus increase the utilization of CMR in India in a way that is appropriate to local resources and prevalence of local pathology. The project will also allow us to characterize patient populations that are rare in the US, but prevalent in developing countries to improve early diagnosis and better understanding of these diseases.