Research

 

The Division is actively conducting various research projects under the oversight of its Cardiovascular Research Unit (CRU). The CRU provides the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine with expertise and support in protocol development, protocol coordination, centralized oversight and data quality control for Cardiology Clinical Trials.

The CRU team includes our clinical manager, multiple research coordinators, senior research associate, data management coordinator and biostatistician.

Our faculty are actively involved in a variety of clinical trials with areas of research including carotid artery disease, coronary artery disease, ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction, congenital heart disease, heart failure and electrophysiological heart disorders.

The CRU specializes in cutting-edge technology for pacemaker and cardiac devices and oversees all investigator-initiated, federal, foundation and industry-sponsored studies in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, working closely with the USC Clinical Trials Office (CTO), Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG) and the USC Health Sciences Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB).

The Division also has an active technology development program and has worked closely with the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and outside entities to develop new technology and use of modern communication modalities to diagnose cardiovascular disease and fully engage patients and patients’ families and caregivers. Currently, the Division has 48 federal, foundation and industry sponsored protocols and 10 investigator-initiated protocols.

yoni research.jpg
 
interventional cardiology.jpg

Interventional Cardiology

Ray V. Matthews, MD

  • Supported High Risk Coronary Intervention

  • Non-Invasive Cardiac Pressures Determination by SmartPhone

  • Percutaneous Therapy of Structural Heart Disease

  • Active projects:

    • MADIT SICD: Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial with Subcutaneous Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator

    • Cardiac Triangle Method: A Noninvasive Method for Left Ventricular End Diastolic Pressure Measurement Based On Intrinsic Frequencies and Systolic Time Intervals

    • SHIELD-II: Supporting Patients Undergoing HIgh-Risk PCI Using a High-Flow PErcutaneous Left Ventricular Support Device

    • Amplatzer Amulet Left Atrial Appendage Occluder Randomized Controlled Trial

    • Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement to Unload the Left Ventricle in Patients with Advanced Heart Failure

    • OPTIMIZE Trial: Assess the Procedural and Clinical Value of the Svelte IDS and RX Sirolimus-Eluting Coronary Stent Systems for the Treatment of Atherosclerotic Lesions in a Randomized Study

cardiomems.jpg

Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology

Uri Elkayam, MD

  • Congestive Heart Failure

  • Cardiovascular Pharmacology

  • Heart Disease in Pregnancy

  • Valvular Heart Disease

Eugene DePasquale, MD

  • Heart transplant, temporary mechanical circulatory, and LVAD clinical outcomes research

  • UNOS Registry Analysis

  • Current Projects:

    • An observational Study of Patients Being Treated for Cardiorenal Syndrome (CRS)

    • Surveillance HeartCare Outcomes Registry (SHORE)

Ajay S. Vaidya, MD

  • Clinical trials with novel heart failure therapeutics

  • Antibody desensitization strategies

  • JAK Inhibition in COVID-1

  • Diversity in Cardiovascular Training

  • Active Projects:

    • A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel group, active controled study to evaluate the effect of sacubitril/valsartan (LCZ696) versus valsartan on changes in NT-proBNP and outcomes, safety and tolerability in HFpEF patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) who have been stabilized during hospitalization and initiated in-hospital or within 30 days post-discharge

Michael W. Fong, MD

  • Biometric Scale Monitoring of Heart Failure Post-Hospitalization

  • Smartphone Delivered Cardiac Rehabilitation in Heart Failure

  • Intrinsic Frequency Assessment of Cardiac Function

  • Current projects include:

    • PRESERVED-HF: Effects of dapagliflozin on biomarkers, symptoms and functional status in patients with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, and PRESERVED ejection fraction Heart Failure

    • MANAGE-HF: Multiple Cardiac Sensors for Management of Heart Failure

cholesterol.jpeg

Preventative Cardiology

Helga Van Herle, MD

  • Preventative Cardiology

  • Cardiovascular Disease in Women

  • Cardiac Evaluation of Solid Organ Transplant Candidates

  • Application of Information Technology in Medicine

  • Signal processing for Improvement of Echocardiographic imaging

Parveen K. Garg, MD

  • Atrial Fibrillation

  • Peripheral Artery Disease

  • Cardiovascular Epidemiology

  • Inflammatory Biomarkers

  • Active projects:

    • HERITAGE: Multi-center cross-sectional epidemiological study to characterize the prevalence and distribution of lipoprotein(a) levels among patients with established cardiovascular disease.

    • Novel Identification of Myocardial Scar Tissue using Arterial Spin Labeling

Jerold S. Shinbane, MD

  • Cardiac CT imaging

  • Cardiac MRI imaging

  • Cardiac electrophysiology

  • Active projects:

    • Epidemiology and pathophysiology in transient non-ischemic cardiomyopathy also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy

    • Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMR)/ Cardiovascular CT (CCT) Database

micra.jpg

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology

Ivan Ho, MD

  • Approach and techniques for catheter ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation

  • High resolution mapping in complex atrial and ventricular arrhythmias

  • Improvement of efficacy and safety in RF energy delivery and biophysics of lesion assessment

  • New technology in device therapy in cardiac pacing (especially CRT) and defibrillation

  • Intracardiac echocardiography for real-time imaging in complex ablation procedures

Andrew Zadeh, MD

  • Diamond II study - clinical evaluation of the Diamondtemp catheter ablation system in treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation

  • Leadless II IDE study of leadless Abbott AVEIR pacemaker

  • BAT wire study - feasibility and use of a percutaneous implant of the Barostim neuro modulation therapy for advanced heart failure

Junaid Zaman, MD

  • Atrial fibrillation structure function relationships 

  • Mechanisms of persistence of atrial fibrillation

  • Identification of AF drivers using signal processing and novel mapping methods 

  • Improving postgraduate medical education curricula 

  • Bedside medicine - improving the patient physician encounter 

  • Active projects:

    • COMParison of Algorithms for Rotational Evaluation in Atrial Fibrillation  

    • AcQMap® Global Registry of Procedural and Long-term Clinical Outcomes

    • AcQMap® US Registry of Procedural and Long-term Clinical Outcomes

    • Pulmonary Vein Isolation Plus Left Atrial Slow Zone Mapping and Ablation

      An AcQMap Substrate Characterization Study

    • AcQBlate Force Sensing Ablation System US IDE Study for Atrial Fibrillation