Oscar Demeulenaere receives an award from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.

Oscar Demeulenaere, a PhD student in his second year, has won the Young Investigator Award in Basic Science at the online conference “European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) – Best of Imaging 2020“.

He works, under the supervision of Mathieu Pernot and Clément Papadacci and with the support of Philippe Mateo, on the development of an ultrasound-based method to image the coronary circulation. The coronary microcirculation is key in the perfusion of the cardiac muscle. Yet, there is no clinically available technique to directly image the coronary microvasculature. PET (positon-emission tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) provide indirect measurements, and angiography methods relying on X-ray or CT remain limited to larger vessels.

In his work entitled “3D ultrasound coronarography: first proof of concept study on isolated beating rat hearts”, Oscar Demeulenaere showed the first 3D full mapping of the coronary circulation, from the larger coronary arteries to the smallest coronary microvessels, obtained in vitro by combining ultrafast ultrasound imaging with the injection of contrast agents.

The award is a recognition of the potential of ultrasound as a novel modality for coronary imaging. Last year, the team’s efforts had already been acknowledged by the EACVI with Clément Papadacci being a finalist for the Young Investigator Award for his work on 4D ultrafast echocardiography.

O Demeulenaere, P Mateo, P Sandoval, O Villemain, M Tanter, C Papadacci, M Pernot, 3D ultrasound coronarography: first proof of concept study on isolated beating rat hearts.