Understanding the Physics of Coronary Artery Flow and Pressure Physiology

Dr Jan Piek is a clinical academic and interventional cardiologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers at the University of Amsterdam. At the moment, he has a full-time position as a professor of clinical cardiology at the AMC Heart Center in Amsterdam. His particular interest is interventional cardiology in which field he has been active for almost 30 years. In his academic position, he has supervised approximately 55 PhD students on the theme diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. The topic of his research work focusses on translational aspects of coronary atherosclerosis. This started in the area of arteriogenesis after the completion of his thesis in 1992 followed by a close collaboration with the research group of Prof. Wolfgang Schaper from Bad Nauheim in Germany. In the same period, he started pioneering with the company Cardiometris, Mountain View, Ca, USA, that finally led the development of guidewires, equipped with pressure and Doppler sensors, as a technical refinement for guidance of coronary interventions. Moreover, subsequent studies performed on reperfusion injury with dedicated centers in the US and Germany, provided novel insights into the inflammatory response following acute myocardial infarction. His pioneering work on coronary hemodynamics led to creation of an international network of specialized centers. The DEFINE FLOW study involves a collaboration between Texas Heart Institute and the Amsterdam University Medical Center on combined pressure and flow measurements and was conducted in 12 sites worldwide. The last three years, he has worked as the editor in chief of the Netherlands Heart Journal.

Dr. Ozan Demir is a Structural and Interventional Cardiology Fellow at Hammersmith Hospital London. He recently completed post as Clinical Research Fellow at St Thomas’ Hospital and King’s College London, where he is undertook a PhD in coronary physiology under the supervision of Professor Divaka Perera. He studied Medicine at King’s College London and trained in London prior to undertaking Interventional Cardiology Fellowships at Hammersmith Hospital, London and San Raffaele, Milano. During his Fellowship in Milano, under the supervision of Professor Antonio Colombo and Professor Azeem Latib, he undertook an MSc in Interventional Cardiology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele. He is currently involved in various clinical research studies on cardiovascular physiology.

Asst. Prof. Pawel Gasior is an interventional cardiology fellow in Division of Cardiology and Structural Heart Diseases, Medical University of Silesia in Poland. He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and the currently act as co-chair of the EAPCI New Initiatives for Young Interventionalists Committee. Following graduation from Medical University of Silesia he undertook research fellowship at Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York under supervision of Dr. Juan Granada. Besides clinical medicine, he is also engaged in both clinical and preclinical research on intravascular imaging, new intravascular technologies, coronary physiology and coronary artery disease.