Organized by: IEEE Ottawa Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

Title: Rubidium-82 PET: Bang-for-Buck Technology for Steering Cardiac Care

Speaker: Dr. Ran Klein

Manager, Cardiac Imaging Core Laboratory, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Date, time and location:
September 15, 2011
admission is free
18:00 - 19:30
ME4342
Carleton University

Abstract

Cardiac disease remains a leading cause of death in Western society,
even though treatment has greatly improved in recent decades. The need
for early diagnosis and tailored patient management still exists,
while escalating health care costs are demanding cost effective
diagnosis and treatment. Our work on quantification of cardiac blood
flow using rubidium-82 (82Rb) positron emission tomography (PET) is
aimed at providing precise clinical information for effective patient
management, while substantially reducing the cost of these exams. This
talk will highlight the technologies we’ve been developing and
exploiting to meet these goals. The following particulars will be
discussed: advanced PET technologies, 82Rb/82Sr generators and
delivery of 82Rb to the patient, Quantification of myocardial blood
flow from 82Rb PET images.

Biography

Ran Klein is manager of the Cardiac Imaging Core Lab at the University
of Ottawa Heart Institute, National Cardiac PET Centre. His research
is focused on extracting quantitative physiologic information from
cardiac images. In particular Ran has worked on quantification of
cardiac blood flow using rubidium-82 positron emission tomography
(PET). His research has resulted in commercially available software
for image analysis (FlowQuant). Ran’s work on an automated rubidium-82
infusion system is currently being commercialized by DraxImage,
Montreal. Ran obtained his PhD (2010) and MASc (2005) in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Ottawa, and has been conducting
research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute since 2001. He is
an adjunct professor at Carleton University.