Avanti Gulhane, M.D., receives 2022 Seed Grant Award from NASCI

Avanti Gulhane, M.D., DNB, FSCMR, received the 2022 Seed Grant Award from the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI) under the mentorship of Cardiothoracic Imaging Section Chief Karen Ordovas, M.D.

The award will support their pilot project on potential of radiomics texture features on LGE CMR images to predict inflammation or fibrosis related to sarcoidosis when compared to PET CT as a gold standard.

The work supported by this grant will allow them to find such quantitative features on CMR textural analysis that can be extracted using python language based radiomics computation and not perceptible visually, Dr. Gulhane, acting clinical instructor of cardiothoracic imaging, said. It will be a step forward in developing an objective rather than subjective assessment of CMR that will be specific to sarcoid patients. Drs. Gulhane and Ordovas aim to identify such new imaging quantitative biomarkers on CMR and establish their significance to identify inflammation and scar that is traditionally confirmed on FDG PET.

Dr. Gulhane said receiving the award was a proud moment for everyone in the cardiothoracic imaging section.

“I was ecstatic when I was informed that this project that I conceptualized under the mentorship of Dr. Ordovas has been recognized and awarded by such a prestigious organization as NASCI,” she said. “I believe that I am entrusted with a responsibility as well as a fantastic opportunity to explore an exciting field of radiomics that we could potentially develop into artificial intelligence We look forward to establishing newer quantitative imaging biomarkers on CMR for patients with sarcoidosis.”