Benoit Desjardins, MD, PhD

Description of Research Expertise

I am interested in the development of novel techniques for cardiovascular imaging by MRI and CT, including pulse sequence programming and post-processing algorithms. My current main research which is supported by a 1 million dollar NIH grant is on the high resolution imaging of myocardial damage by MRI, in the context of cardiac ablation therapy for arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia). This involves the development of new free breathing ECG-gated pulse sequences to acquire the data, post-processing algorithms to extract abnormal signal on MR images, semi-automatic methods for generation of 3-D representations of myocardial damage, and techniques for integration with endocardial mapping techniques. I am also interested in developing new techniques to assess aortic compliance from ECG-gated dynamic CTs, as well as new techniques to assess left atrial function from ECG-gated CT and MRI.

Description of Clinical Expertise

I am a non-invasive cardiovascular radiologist. My clinical skills are applied primarily to non-invasive imaging of cardiac and vascular disease by MRI and CT. I am especially interested in imaging of myocardial damage in ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies by MRI and CT, and imaging of disease of the thoracic aorta by CT and MRI, including 3-D and 4-D imaging. My skills also include stress testing and MR/CT imaging of patients with pacemakers and ICDs. I have also expertise in thoracic imaging (MRI, CT, CXR), body imaging (MRI/CT), and ER radiology.

Description of Other Expertise

I have expertise in information technology in radiology and cardiology, including RIS, PACS, 3-D workstations, networking and data mining.