CBL’s software on Face recognition appears at the “Making Our Mark” section of UH website
Monday, May 26, 2008
Face Value
Trying to remember dozens of personal identification numbers (PIN), passwords, and credit card numbers may soon be unnecessary, thanks to Ioannis Kakadiaris, UH’s Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science. He has developed the URxD facial recognition software that uses a three-dimensional snapshot of a person’s face to create a unique identifier, or biometric. Shown in government testing to be tops in its field, URxD can be used for everything from gaining access to secure facilities to authorizing credit card purchases. It can recognize and filter out facial hair, sunglasses, and makeup to accurately recreate the topography of a person’s face and match it to a previously taken picture in the database. Kakadiaris and his team are hoping for corporate interest in bringing the technology, now at the advanced prototype stage, to the marketplace.
Dr. Kakadiaris and CBL member George Toderici interviewed on Fox News
Monday, February 25, 2008
Dr. Kakadiaris answered questions on how our face recognition technology can help solving the identity theft problems and improve credit card security. He was joined by George Toderici who talked about his interests in biometrics.
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Pumps and Pipes
Monday, December 03, 2007
Much like moving oil through a pipeline, the heart must pump blood through the body. In a collaborative effort between Houston's largest industries, the Pumps and Pipes 1 Conference brought together petroleum, medical and imaging experts to explore potential crossover ideas and extract shared technologies useful to each industry.
The program directors were Alan Lumsden (Professor of Surgery at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center), Bill E. Kline, Manager of the Wells and Materials Division at ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, and Ioannis Kakadiaris, Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor of Computer Science at UH. All three – Lumsden, Kakadiaris and Kline – were among more than 20 presenters with topics that included the areas of hydraulics, conduits and pumps, accessing targets, and imaging and monitoring.
Lumsden and Kline kicked off the event with a discussion titled "Docs and Rocks," with Lumsden addressing the anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system followed by Kline talking about the geology and physics of hydrocarbon production. In addition to presenting his own research in medical image computing during one of the afternoon sessions, Kakadiaris gave an overview of the competencies of the UH Biomedical Cluster.
Event Coverage:
- First Science News: Parallels between pumping blood, oil focus of conference
- Houston Chronicle: Conference shows blood and oil can mix — in Houston
- Houston Chronicle - Viewpoints, Outlook Adding to mix of pumps, pipes
- 88.7 kuhf.fm Houstom pubnlic radio: Pipes and Pumps 1 Two Industries Share Ideas (Click to Listen)
- EurekAlert! : Parallels between pumping blood, oil focus of conference
- Asiapump.com : Parallels between pumping blood, oil focus of conference
- PARALLELS BETWEEN PUMPING BLOOD, OIL FOCUS OF CONFERENCE
The New Face Of Identity Protection: You
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Science Daily
"Taking a radically new approach, UH Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor Ioannis Kakadiaris and his Computational Biomedicine Lab (CBL) developed the URxD face recognition software that uses a three-dimensional snapshot of a person’s face to create a unique identifier, a biometric. Shown in government testing to be tops in its field, URxD can be used for everything from gaining access to secure facilities to authorizing credit card purchases. The identification procedure is as effortless as taking a photograph.
URxD leads the pack for 3D face recognition solutions based on the face’s shape, according to the results of the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT 2006). The National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted the rigorous testing for FRVT 2006, which was sponsored by several U.S. government agencies. FRVT 2006 is the first independent performance benchmark for 3-D face recognition technology." More...
THE NEW FACE OF IDENTITY PROTECTION: YOU
Monday, July 30, 2007
University of Houston
HOUSTON, July 30, 2007—Trying to remember dozens of personal identification numbers (PIN), passwords and credit card numbers may not be necessary for much longer, thanks to a University of Houston professor and his team.
Taking a radically new approach, UH Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor Ioannis Kakadiaris and his Computational Biomedicine Lab (CBL) developed the URxD face recognition software that uses a three-dimensional snapshot of a person’s face to create a unique identifier, a biometric. Shown in government testing to be tops in its field, URxD can be used for everything from gaining access to secure facilities to authorizing credit card purchases. The identification procedure is as effortless as taking a photograph.
URxD leads the pack for 3D face recognition solutions based on the face’s shape, according to the results of the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT 2006). The National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted the rigorous testing for FRVT 2006, which was sponsored by several U.S. government agencies. FRVT 2006 is the first independent performance benchmark for 3-D face recognition technology.
“Accuracy is the name of the game in 3-D face recognition,” Kakadiaris said. “What makes our system so accurate is the strength of the variables that we use to describe a person’s face.
“Remembering dozens of personal identification numbers and passwords is not the solution to identity theft. PINs and passwords are not only inconvenient to memorize, but also are impractical to safeguard. In essence, they merely tie two pieces of information together; once the secret is compromised, the rest follows. The solution is to be able to tie your private information to your person in a way that cannot be compromised.”
The software and technology also could play a role in national security.
“With the growing concern for security at the personal, national
and international level, the University of Houston is pleased that
Dr. Kakadiaris and his team have demonstrated a very promising technology
for personal identification,” said John Warren, UH associate
general counsel for research and intellectual property management.
“We look forward to its adoption by government and industry.”
URxD inventors are hoping for corporate interest in bringing the
technology, now at the advanced prototype stage, to the marketplace.
“This technology will have a positive impact on some of today’s
hottest issues,” Kakadiaris said. “Imagine a day when
you simply sit in front of your computer, and it recognizes who
you are. Everything will be both easier and more secure, from online
purchases to parental control of what Web sites your children can
visit.”
Note: Use of results from the Facial Recognition Vendor Test 2006 does not constitute the U.S. government’s endorsement of any particular system.
For more information about the Computational Biomedicine Lab, visit www.cbl.uh.edu/.
For more information about the URxD, visit www.cbl.uh.edu/URxD.
For more information about the Face Recognition Vendor Test, visit http://face.nist.gov/frvt/.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with nearly
400 faculty members and approximately 4,000 students, offers bachelor’s,
master’s and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational
sciences and mathematics. Faculty members in the departments of
biology and biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, geosciences,
mathematics and physics have internationally recognized collaborative
research programs in association with UH interdisciplinary research
centers, Texas Medical Center institutions and national laboratories.
To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html.
For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
View Press ReleaseThe Vulnerable Heart
Thursday, February 15, 2007
It kills more people than any cancer. Every thirty seconds, an American suffers a heart attack. Every minute, one dies. Many of us could be at risk and not know it until it's too late. We hear the unsettling news more frequently than ever before - it's happening to seemingly healthy, active people.
Full article available from UH Online Magazine »
Dr. Kakadiaris interviewed on Local2 News
Sunday, December 31, 2006
In this Local2 news program, Dr. Kakadiaris answered questions on how our face recognition technology has the potential to revolutionize access-control systems.
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President’s Annual Report on NSF Award
Monday, December 18, 2006
Computer scientists receive $900K NSF grant to study brain function and human learning
A $900,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant—the largest instrumentation grant ever awarded to UH by NSF—will foster collaboration between computer science and medicine and develop technologies that may help in the noninvasive diagnosis and treatment of a variety of diseases.
With a primary focus of merging noninvasive imaging technologies with computational resources, the grant seeks to extend knowledge of how humans learn, study brain function and behavior, detect cognitive impairment, provide continuous noninvasive monitoring of human physiology, analyze facial expressions, and improve biometrics-based security.
Each scientist in the group brings a different area of expertise and a separate laboratory—the grant will unify these labs, extend the range of each technology, and add computation and visualization resources.
President’s Annual Report on Vasa Vasorum Imaging
Monday, December 18, 2006
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A breakthrough in computational medicine is helping one professor uncover the heart’s ticking “time-bomb.” Ioannis Kakadiaris, director of the Computational Biomedicine Laboratory, is collaborating with cardiologists from the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack in this research effort. With cardiovascular disease accounting for twice as many deaths as all cancers in the United States combined, the professor of computer science is providing clinicians with a new assessment tool to alert physicians to a heart attack risk.
This “time-bomb,” also known as “vulnerable plaque,” is in the hearts of unaware, healthy-looking people or “vulnerable patients” who bear a more than 10 percent risk of having a heart attack in the next twelve months. Kakadiaris received a three-year, $566,350 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Information and Intelligent Systems to support his efforts to defuse these time bombs.
This imaging technology will give doctors the ability, for the first time, to detect “inflamed plaque,” representing regions of blood vessels prone to future rupture and sudden blockage.
A cross-sectional view of the interior of a human coronary artery, as captured by an intravascular ultrasound and UH’s Computational Biomedicine Lab ACES software. The darkest red spots indicate calcified deposits of advanced atherosclerosis, a symptom of coronary artery disease.
Dr. Kakadiaris interviewed on ABC13 News
Thursday, December 14, 2006
In this ABC13 eyewitness news program, Dr. Kakadiaris answered questions on how our face recognition technology has the potential to revolutionize access-control systems.
To view an archive copy of this ABC13 broadcast, click PLAY below.
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Do you have a healthy heart?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
"View this video on 11 News site":http://www.khou.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=83053&catId=35
Heart attacks kill more people than any cancer, yet many of us are at risk and we won’t know until it’s too late.
One Houston research doctor there is a solution and his work is attracting critical attention nationwide.
Ken Lay died from a heart attack.
Two years ago, former President Clinton could’ve ended up the same way but doctors were able to save him with bypass surgery.
With 1.5 million Americans a year having heart attacks, some doctors expressed alarm that the president had never had widely available scans to check for heart disease.
The machines use radiation and ultrasound to find early signs of the blocked arteries that lead to heart attacks.
“Definitely could’ve picked it up, no doubt about it,” said Dr. Mort Naghavi.
Dr. Naghavi is a Houston heart researcher who believes virtually all of us should be getting these tests beginning when we’re middle-aged.
“It’s probably more and more important for heart disease because once you’re struck you’re dead,” said Dr. Naghavi.
It all sounds good, nobody wants to have a heart attack. But questions are being raised about how effective some of these heart exams really are. And if the doctors promoting them have a financial conflict of interest.”
The tests can cost hundreds of dollars each and there are no conclusive studies that prove that the widespread use of them would reduce heart attacks.
That was pointed out in an article last month in the Boston Globe.
It centered on the efforts of Dr. Naghavi and over two dozen other doctors who are promoting the widespread use of the heart exams.
The article pointed out some of the doctors had ties to medical and drug companies that could benefit if such exams were to be given to millions more people.
Dr. Naghavi said he makes no apologies for the connection between medical researchers and the medical industry, connections he said they fully disclosed.
“That should be regarded as a positive factor, not a negative factor,” he said.
In fact, Dr. Naghavi and his colleagues spent two hours showing us how they’re developing a brand new way to check for blocked arteries. It’s a new technology that could make cutting-edge heart exams inexpensive and no more complicated than a getting your blood pressure checked.
“There is none like this, we’re the only one in the country,” Dr. Naghavi said.
The test involves measuring changes in blood temperature in the fingertips. A cuff cuts off blood flow, then its released.
“Now your blood temperature goes back up,” Dr. Naghavi said.
The temperature is a measure of how much blood is flowing. The curve reveals if arteries are blocked or not.
The device is being designed with help from computer scientists at the University of Houston.
“All of us are collaborating very closely with people at the Medical Center,” said Ralph Metcalfe, UH Biomedical Engineer.
“For me, its a personal mission because my mother died of heart attack,” said Ioannis Kakadiaris, UH Computer Scientist.
If independent tests prove the device effective, millions more of us could be inexpensively checked for early signs of heart disease.
The critics can debate whether it’s money well spent.
NSF funds UH science facility
Monday, April 10, 2006
New state-of-the-art facility to acquire data to analyze human cognition and behavior
by KELLY J. SANTOS
The Daily Cougar
A grant by the National Science Foundation is helping UH researchers study ways to listen when the human body talks.
The $900,000 grant, the largest grant ever awarded to the University by the NSF, will help five UH researchers build a state-of-the-art research and training facility, will serve interests in the areas of biosignal analysis and biocomputation, George Zouridakis, principal investigator of the grant, said.
The facility will house computing systems designed to acquire, analyze, integrate, securely store and visualize large volumes of data obtained from an experimental subject, all in real time, Zouridakis said.
The five researchers include Zouridakis, who is director of UH's Biomedical Imaging Lab, professor Marc Garbey, associate professors Ioannis Kakadiaris and Ioannis Pavlidis and assistant professor Ricardo Vilalta.
"The whole system shares a common research focus, namely to use captured data to analyze human cognition and behavior," Zouridakis said.
"The end result will extend knowledge about how humans learn and how to help them learn better, how to monitor human physiology continuously and non-intrusively, and how to better detect illness or unusual behavior," he said.
The grant will help fund the equipment used by the researchers, including a new 64-channel infrared brain scanner that measures the electrical activity of the brain.
The new scanner, with the existing 256-channel scanner, will be capable of recording spatiotemporal profiles of neural activation and brain flow simultaneously. This system, combined with thermal and optical cameras and clusters of computational nodes, will be the facility's centerpiece Zouridakis said.
Each of the five researchers brings their own research specialty to the project.
Zouridakis' research involves using scanners like the new infrared brain scanner to capture and analyze brain activity.
The research aims to understand brain function and behavior, human learning and cognitive impairment.
Garbey, the chair of the computer science department, focuses on computational life sciences and high-performance computing. His research involves vein graft failure and neurovascular diseases.
The founder and director of the Computational Biomedicine Lab, Kakadiaris, worked with a team that has developed new technology to better detect and one day prevent heart attacks.
The group of researchers has also developed a new way to obtain a unique biometric signature of a person's face, using visible and infrared spectrum cameras.
The grant will help purchase a dynamic camera that will acquire 3D surface data over time that will be used for biometrics and face expression analysis, Kakadiaris said.
Pavlidis, who serves as the director of the Computational Physiology Lab, developed ATHEMOS, an Automatic THErmal Monitoring System, that allows remote physiological monitoring of a person's health including measurements of blood flow, pulse and breathing rate.
The NSF grant will partially fund the development of a new ATHEMOS system, Pavlidis said.
Co-director of UH's Data Mining and Machine Learning Group, Vilalta, is involved with research that analyzes massive amounts of data to extract informative patterns. His group is also involved in the automated analysis and characterization of Martian topography.
Undergraduate and graduate students are able to participate in the research process.
"Our facilities, which will be open to researchers from academia and industry, will serve as research and training grounds for scientists, and will also have a direct impact on our educational activities by providing hands-on experience to our students," Kakadiaris said.
“Heart Month” Tip Sheet : UH Researchers Put A Lot of Heart into Their Work
Thursday, February 09, 2006
HOUSTON, February 9, 2006 – Matters of the heart dominate in February with Valentine’s Day and the American Heart Association’s ‘Heart Month’ topping the list. As you consider story ideas about heart disease, stroke and heart attack prevention, keep in mind these resources from the University of Houston. For more information, or if you are unable to reach a professor, give us a call at 713-743-8192.
DETECTING A HEART ATTACK TIME BOMB
A computational medicine breakthrough is helping pave the way to uncover a ticking “time-bomb” in the heart. UH computer science professor Ioannis Kakadiaris and doctoral student Sean O’Malley are collaborating with Dr. Morteza Naghavi and other cardiologists and engineers from the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack in this research effort. This group has developed computer technology with the potential to alert physicians to heart attack risk. For the first time, Kakadiaris and his collaborators are enabling physicians to detect microvessels linked to plaque inflammation that represent regions of blood vessels prone to future rupture and sudden blockage. Its early detection is essential in the practice of cardiology in order to reduce the number of fatalities occurring every year due to unpredicted heart attacks and strokes. Kakadiaris can be reached at 713-743-1255 or .
IMPROVING CEREBRAL ANEURYSM TREATMENT
Roughly 25,000 people in the United States suffer hemorrhage each year from cerebral aneurysms, which are ballooning weak spots in the wall of a blood vessel in the brain. Mechanical engineering professor Ralph Metcalfe and his research students at UH are working with physicians at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute on new medical technology to identify brain aneurysms before they create strokes. Metcalfe, who is working primarily with Dr. Charles Strother’s research group, is attempting to develop methods to identify which patients are most at risk. Metcalfe believes that the day is not far off when a fully integrated computational-medical tool will be commonly used in diagnostics and prevention, as well as remedial treatment of this serious medical problem. Metcalfe can be reached at 713-743-4503 or .
PUMPING NEW LIFE INTO ARTIFICIAL HEARTS
Biomedical engineering student Hassan Khalil is conducting research that pumps new life into artificial organs and fosters collaborations between UH and the Texas Medical Center. His model of the human vascular system allows for new experimentation in artificial organ control that aims to maintain important physiological parameters, such as total blood flow, and makes experiments more flexible, easier, more predictable and less expensive. Collaborators on the project include doctors at the Texas Heart Institute and UH biomedical engineering professors Matt Franchek and Ralph Metcalfe. Khalil can be reached at 832-355-7244 or .
HEALTHY MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT
The University of Houston Spirit of Houston Marching Band is stepping to the beat of a healthy drum. Members of the band, along with the cheer squads and dance teams, are part of an ongoing study to assess the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and obesity-related conditions. The study is a project of the UH Department of Health and Human Performance. Professor Jill Bush and her team assess students twice a year and introduced them to a regular exercise program to incorporate into their regular practice routine. She’ll present her findings at the American College of Sports Medicine National Conference in Denver this summer. Bush can be reached at 713-743-9869 or .
NEUROSCIENCE DISCOVERY COULD LEAD TO DRUGS FOR STROKE
Carrying out research with Dr. Bob Bryan at Baylor College of Medicine on mechanisms that control dilation of blood vessels in the brain, Stuart Dryer, UH professor of biology and biochemistry, says his research may provide a new basis for developing drugs for stroke. The discovery that activation of certain channels in cerebral smooth muscle causes vessels to dilate, provides a possible pharmacological strategy to develop drugs to selectively dilate blood vessels in the brain that may be useful in certain kinds of stroke or pre-stroke conditions. The work also could generate leads to develop drugs for migraine. Dryer can be reached at 713-743-2697 or .
PREFERRED TREATMENT FOR HEART DISEASE NOW TURNED ON ASTHMA
Over the course of a 30-year period, tens of millions of heart patients died prematurely before beta blockers were finally discovered to decrease the mortality rate of congestive heart failure (CHF) patients, says UH pharmacology professor Richard Bond. A proponent of paradoxical pharmacology – the theory of using drugs that cause an initial downturn in one’s condition before long-term improvements occur – Bond has turned his attention to treating asthma this same way. He found beta blockers ultimately allow air to flow more freely in asthma sufferers by forcing the smooth muscle lining the airways to relax and dilate. The work suggests that asthma and CHF patients both exhibit the beneficial effect with long-term treatment. Bond can be reached at 713-743-1210 or .
PREVENTING ANEURYSMS FROM RUPTURING
In an effort to develop improved vascular prostheses, called stents, to treat arteries damaged by aneurysm, UH math professor Suncica Canic is collaborating with researchers at the Texas Medical Center, using complex mathematical models to perfect stent design. Working closely with doctors at the Texas Heart Institute and Baylor College of Medicine, she has initiated interdisciplinary alliances to address issues related to this type of medical treatment. The main goal of her work is to help cardiologists gain deeper insight into the problems related to the medical treatment of aortic abdominal aneurysm and the treatment of coronary artery disease. Canic can be reached at 713-743-3466 or .
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.
About the Cullen College of Engineering
UH Cullen College of Engineering has produced five U.S. astronauts, 10 embers of the National Academy of Engineering, and degree programs that have ranked in the top ten nationally. With more than 2,600 students, the college offers accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees in biomedical, chemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer, industrial, and mechanical engineering. It also off
Defusing a “Time Bomb”: Heart Attack Risk Detection Technology Developed at University of Houston
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
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A breakthrough in computational medicine is helping one University of Houston professor pave the way to uncover a ticking "time-bomb" in the heart.
Ioannis A. Kakadiaris, an associate professor of computer science at UH and director of the Computational Biomedicine Laboratory (CBL), and doctoral student Sean O'Malley are collaborating with Dr. Morteza Naghavi and other leading cardiologists from the Association for Eradication of Heart Attack (AEHA) in this research effort. With cardiovascular disease accounting for twice as many deaths as all cancers in the United States, this group has developed computer technology to alert physicians to heart attack risk.
"This 'time-bomb' is called 'vulnerable plaque,' and the unaware, healthy-looking person with the 'bomb' in his or her heart is the 'vulnerable patient,'" Kakadiaris said. "These 'vulnerable patients' bear a very high risk of having a heart attack in the next 12 months."
To support this effort to defuse these "time bombs," Kakadiaris has been awarded a three-year, $566,350 grant from the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
"This is exactly the outcome we had hoped to foster when we funded this project," said James C. French, NSF program director whose support was instrumental for the project to come this far. "The Science and Engineering Information Integration and Informatics program at NSF seeks to fund core computer science research in a domain context that has the potential for high impact in science and engineering domains. Kakadiaris' expertise in computer vision to aid in the identification of vulnerable patients has the potential for broad impact in health care. I am delighted to see that his group is achieving that potential."
The method developed by the CBL takes advantage of the tendency for vasa vasorum – the small arteries distributed around the walls of blood vessels – to proliferate around areas of inflammation in human blood vessels. Using ultrasound inside blood vessels, known as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), along with micro- and nano-sized contrast agents, Kakadiaris' lab has developed a new software tool that can generate cross-sectional images of a patient's arteries, highlighting areas with dense vasa vasorum and potential inflammation. For the first time, this new imaging technology will provide doctors with the ability to detect "inflamed plaque" that represents regions of blood vessels prone to future rupture and sudden blockage. Its early detection is essential in the practice of cardiology in order to reduce the number of fatalities occurring every year due to unpredicted heart attacks.
"The case of former President Clinton, who last year unexpectedly experienced a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, demonstrates that even a former president with access to the best available medical care can have undiagnosed heart disease," Kakadiaris said. "Clinton himself blamed 'insufficient vigilance' and stressed the importance of repeated testing as a means of heart disease prevention."
Supporting this line of thinking – now called the "Clinton Syndrome" – AEHA's mission is to identify "vulnerable patients" by advancing the science and practice of heart attack prevention, detection and treatment. Additionally, a non-profit initiative sponsored by AEHA, Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education (SHAPE), presents a practice guideline for doctors to implement public screening of at-risk populations, calling for men 45 and older and women 55 and older to undergo a comprehensive vascular health assessment.
"Recent discoveries and major advances in diagnostic and therapeutic areas have set the stage for translating new science, such as Kakadiaris' work, into a new practice of preventive cardiology," said Naghavi, president of AEHA. "While further studies are warranted, we are making steady progress toward eradicating heart attack. Considering the large amounts of data the SHAPE program will produce, there is an urgent need for computational tools to assist in screening for the conditions that underlie sudden cardiac events."
Kakadiaris' lab is part of the Ultimate IVUS Collaborative Project at UH, along with a number of other physicians and scientists. Also involved in these clinical and preclinical studies are Drs. Manolis Vavuranakis and Christodoulos Stefanadis from the University of Athens Medical School, Drs. Stephane Carlier and Roxana Mehran from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Columbia University Medical Center, Erling Falk from Aarhus University in Denmark, Dr. Craig Hartley from Baylor College of Medicine in the Texas Medical Center, and Ralph Metcalfe, mechanical engineering professor in UH's Cullen College of Engineering.
"Americans suffer approximately 1.5 million heart attacks annually and about half of them prove fatal," Kakadiaris said. "Despite a host of new public health initiatives targeting heart disease and its aggravating factors, such as diabetes, inadequate physical activity and obesity, sudden cardiac death is a major concern with the majority of deaths occurring in apparently healthy people."