Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

1967 AB Colgate U, Hamilton,NY; 1971 MD SUNY Buffalo-School of Med, Buffalo,NY

1971-72 Intern Med, BU Hosp, Boston; 1972-74 USPHS-Union,WV

1974-75 JAR Med Georgetown-VAH, Washington,DC; 1975-77 Cardiol, Victoria Gen Hosp, Halifax,NS;

1977-78 Clin/Rsh fellow (Cardiol) MGH: 1991-92 Fellow (PET), MGH

ResearchFrom 1978 until 1993 the bulk of my time was devoted to basic research concerning physiological mechanisms active in regulation of myocardial blood flow primarily in the setting of a coronary artery stenosis. These experiments were performed in a closed chest, swine model of ischemic heart disease, which I developed at Rhode Island Hospital (Brown University). After leaving Brown in 1993 to assume the role of Director, Nuclear Cardiology at MGH, I have employed PET methodology to continue my work in the physiology of the coronary circulation now in human subjects. These studies focus on mechanisms active in the regulation of myocardial blood flow and oxygen consumption not only in ischemic heart disease but also in healthy subjects as well as in patients with microvascular and mitochondrial disease. More recent clinically oriented work has been directed as use of quantiative measurments of adenosine stimulated myocardial blood flow (MBF) for diagnosis of extent and severity of CAD. Work also is in progress for validation, both in swine and human subjects, of a new F-18 labeled tracer for quantiative PET measurments of MBF.

Publications

GEWIRTZ H et al:PET Measurement of Adenosine-Stimulated Myocardial Blood Flow vs Relative Tracer Content for Assessment of Coronary Stenosis Severity.J Am Coll Cardiol Img 2009;2:751.

GEWIRTZ H et al:Myocardial Blood Flow and Oxygen Consumption in Friedreich's Ataxia.Coronary Artery Disease 2007;18:15

GEWIRTZ H: Regulating Myocardial Blood Flow in Normal and Diseased States.Current Cardiology Reports 2009;11:117

GEWIRTZ H: Cardiac PET: Measurement of Myocardial Blood Flow.In: Diagnostic Imaging of CAD (Ed. Abela GS) Lippincott,Williams and Wilkins, Philadel, PA,2009