Talk explores improved diagnostics for cardiac threat through biomedical imaging

Talk explores improved diagnostics for cardiac threat through biomedical imaging

Each year, seemingly healthy people suffer from acute heart attacks, strokes and sudden cardiac death. Computer science professor Ioannis A. Kakadiaris hopes to change this through his image analysis research. He will be the fourth speaker in a University of Houston (UH) lecture series highlighting the impact of science on health and society.

Kakadiaris, founder and director of the UH Computational Biomedicine Lab, will present "Improving Prediction of Heart Attack Risk" from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Rockwell Pavilion in UH's M.D. Anderson Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Despite major advances in understanding atherosclerosis - more commonly known as hardening of the arteries - close to 610,000 previously asymptomatic individuals in the U.S. will have a sudden heart attack or stroke this year, and 125,000 of them will die within one hour. Physicians need new strategies to identify asymptomatic individuals at risk for cardiac events. Through his research in biomedical image computing, Kakadiaris mines information from cardiovascular imaging data to enhance the ability to detect persons with a high likelihood of having a heart attack in the near future.

His research is motivated by fundamental problems in the broad area of image analysis, with an emphasis on applications that address such challenges as eradicating heart attacks. Kakadiaris, a Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering at UH, also is one of the organizers of the Pumps & Pipes Initiative - a collaborative event combining academia, medicine, and the oil and gas industry - designed to explore potential crossover ideas and technologies.

The Friends of NSM Distinguished Lecture Series, sponsored by the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, features leading scientists and physicians addressing breakthroughs in science that will alter the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, as well as impact the delivery of medical care.

WHO:

Ioannis Kakadiaris, Ph.D.
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering
Director, UH Computational Biomedicine Lab

WHAT:

Lecture: "Improving Prediction of Heart Attack Risk"
Friends of NSM Distinguished Lecture Series: Science Impacting Health and Society

WHEN:

7 - 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23

WHERE:

University of Houston
Rockwell Pavilion, second floor of the UH M.D. Anderson Library
Off Calhoun Road, Entrance 1
Map: http://www.friends.nsm.uh.edu/directions