Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Director, Cardiovascular MRI Clinical Research (CMCR) Program

During my clinical training as a Cardiologist I became aware of the diversity of cardiovascular disease and that diversity in imaging is a necessary aim. Cardiovascular MRI’s ability to adapt itself to clinical questions, to expose signs of disease throughout its evolution, and to offer unique tools to evaluate therapeutic response has framed my interest in clinical research.

The CMCR program is a comprehensive clinical research program that is dedicated to the exploration of current and evolving MRI techniques at the 3 Tesla field strength. Its primary mandate is to identify and systematically evaluate the prognostic utility of myocardial tissue characterization and its therapeutic impact on invasive therapies, such as; cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation.

Myocardial scar arises when heart tissue is irreversibly injured. Just as the skin scars in response to cuts or burns our hearts scar following periods of low blood flow (myocardial infarction), inflammation (myocarditis) or surgical intervention (ie: for treatment of congenital heart disease). These scars alter how the heart functions, how it responds to therapy, and how electricity moves throughout the heart. The latter may predispose to life-threatening arrhythmias. CMR offers unprecedented visualization of myocardial scar using both 2 and 3-dimensional techniques. We exploit the higher signal from 3 Tesla MRI to view this scar at exceptionally high resolution.

Recent Publications:

Pectus Excavatum With Sternal Compression of the Inferior Vena Cava: A Rare Cause of Recurrent Syncope, James A. White, Nowell Fine, Yaron Shargall, In press: Circulation

A Two-Level Transfer Function Based Method for Heart Display with Vascular Tissue and Scar Enhancement, Qi Zhang, Roy Eagleson, Terry M. Peters, James A. White, In Press: IEEE

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in Myocarditis: A JACC White Paper, Matthias G. Friedrich, Udo Sechtem, Jeanette Schulz-Menger, Sanjay Prasad, Pauline Alakija, James A. White, Hassan Abdel-Aty, Matthias Gutberlet, Anthony Aletras, Jean-Pierre Laissy, Matthias Pauschinger, Neil G. Filipchuk, Andreas Kumar, Ian Paterson, Peter Liu, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2009, 53; 1475-1487

Workup of the Cardiac Arrest Survivor: For the Symposium on Sudden Cardiac Death For Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, Rajesh Subbiah, Lorne J. Gula, George J. Klein, Allan C. Skanes, James White, Raymond Yee, Andrew D. Krahn, Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. November 2008. 51, (3); 195-203

Feasibility of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients with an Implantable Loop Recorder. Jorge Wong, Raymond Yee, Lorne Gula, Allan Skanes, Ian Ross, James White, George Klein, Andrew Krahn. PACE 2008; 31:333-337