Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2010

Mentor: Emmanouil Brilakis, MD, PhD
Department: Cardiology
Room number: VA, Cardiac Cath Lab
Mail Code: 111A
Phone number: 214-857-1547
E-mail: esbrilakis@yahoo.com
Project title: Cardiac CAtheterization for Bypass Graft Patency Rate Optimization: the CABG-PRO randomized-controlled pilot study

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 10-001

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): NA

Project Type patient-based research

Brief Description of Project:

Our research group is currently involved in several clinical trials, with the primary focus being on improving outcomes after coronary artery bypass graft surgery and on improving the patency of saphenous vein coronary bypass grafts.
(http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/research/0,2357,71106,00.html)

Medical students can expect to get a first hand experience of the day-to-day operations of a busy clinical trials team and participate in all stages of a trial development. There are ample opportunities for very motivated medical students to do their own focused project and publish their own paper.

CABG-PRO (http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01063491) is one of the most recent trials we have initiated and focus on the period immediately after surgery. Full description follows:

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

1. Garcia BA, Wood F, Cipher D, Banerjee S, Brilakis ES. Reproducibility of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for the Detection of Lipid Core Coronary Plaques and Observed Changes After Coronary Stent Implantation. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2010; in press

2. Boatman D, Saeed B, Varghese I, Peters CT, Daye J, Haider A, Roesle M, Banerjee S, Brilakis ES. Prior coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography have multiple uncontrolled coronary artery disease risk factors and high risk for cardiovascular events. Heart Vessels 2009;24:241-246

3. Daye J, Boatman D, Peters C, Varghese I, Haider A, Roesle M, Jessen ME, DiMaio JM, Banerjee S, Brilakis ES. Perioperative Risk of Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. J Investig Med 2008;56:878-881

4. Varghese I, Boatman DM, Peters CT, Daye J, Haider A, Roesle M, Banerjee S, Brilakis ES. Impact on Contrast, Fluoroscopy, and Catheter Utilization From Knowing the Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Anatomy Before Diagnostic Coronary Angiography. Am J Cardiol 2008; 101:1729-1732