Beller, George A.
Primary Appointment
Professor Emeritus, Medicine: Cardiovascular Medicine
Contact Information
PO Box 800158
P.O. Box 800158
Telephone: 434-924-2134
Email: gab4c@virginia.edu
Research Interests
Radionuclide Imaging Agents for Cardiac Imaging
Research Description
Dr. Beller and his collaborators are engaged in the development and validation of radionuclide imaging agents for assessment of patients with suspected or known cardiovascular disease. They are focused on the noninvasive detection of myocardial ischemia with stress myocardial perfusion imaging for identifying high risk patients who would benefit from coronary revascularization. They have the ability to test new imaging agents in the experimental laboratory and take them to the clinical setting. Dr. Beller and his research collaborators are particularly interested in the role of imaging in diabetic patients and are determining whether vasodilator stress perfusion imaging with cardiac magnetic resonance technology is superior to SPECT perfusion imaging in identifying abnormal coronary blood flow reserve. Another area of interest is detecting myocardial viability in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction using radionuclide imaging techniques. In addition, the imaging of cardiac sympathetic nervous system activity with I-123-labeled MIBG in patients with heart failure to identify those most prone to cardiac death is a keen interest of the clinical imaging laboratory. Molecular imaging of vulnerable plaques presently focused in the basic laboratory will be applied to patient studies in the coming years.