Feher receives ASNC Best Clinical Abstract Award

Attila Feher, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, received the Best Clinical Abstract Award from the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) at the 27th Annual Scientific Session and Exhibition.

Feher presented the project, “Integration of Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring from CT Attenuation Scans by Machine Learning Improves Prediction of Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients Undergoing SPECT/CT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging,” on September 9. The goal was to determine whether the use of CAC scoring from CTAC improves performance of machine learning (ML) for predicting MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events) in patients at Yale New Haven Hospital undergoing SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) myocardial perfusion imaging for evaluation of coronary artery disease.

Feher and Edward Miller, MD, PhD, and Albert Sinusas, MD, at the Yale Nuclear Cardiology Lab analyzed 4,770 patients with SPECT MI from the REFINE SPECT Registry in collaboration with Piotr Slomka, PhD, and Konrad Pieszko, MD, PhD, from the Cedars Sinai Medical Center. During the presentation, Feher concluded that machine learning integration of CTAC calcium scoring improved risk prediction for cardiac events compared to conventional risk prediction approaches and compared to ML risk score without integration of calcium scoring, however additional prospective studies will be needed to further validate the performance of this ML-based risk prediction model.

Feher’s scientific scholarship has been celebrated by the journal JACC: CardioOncology and the Hal O’Brien Rising Star Award for his research on coronary microcirculation. He was also the recipient of American Physiological Society Cardiovascular Section Research Recognition Award and the Japanese Society for Microcirculation Young Investigator Award. Feher was recently promoted to a faculty position in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine after completing fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine and cardiovascular imaging.

"The future is bright," said Eric J. Velazquez, MD, Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine and chief of Yale Cardiovascular Medicine, who presented, "Necessary but Not Sufficient: Echocardiography Before Revascularization," at the ASNC Annual Scientific Session.

Prior recipients of the award include Azmi Ahmad, PhD, Jakub Toczek, PhD and Kiran Gona, PhD.