Cardiac MRI in Diagnosis, Clinical Management, and Prognosis of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia

Dr. Abidov is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. In 2009, soon after joining the faculty, Dr. Abidov received the C. Leonard Pfeiffer Endowed Chair in Cardiology and worked as chief of cardiology at the UA Medical Center – South Campus from 2009 to 2012.

Since 2012, Dr. Abidov is the medical director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Services for the Banner-University Medical Center-Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Abidov is a well-known advanced cardiovascular imaging specialist who is certified in echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cardiovascular CTA and MRI, and peripheral vascular ultrasound.

Dr. Abidov is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and the American Heart Association (FAHA), as well as the American Society of Echocardiography (FASE). He is a founding member of the Society of Cardiovascular Computer Tomography. He is an active member of the AHA Clinical Cardiology Council and the ACC Cardiovascular Imaging Council.

Dr. Abidov authored multiple papers in the field of cardiovascular imaging, which were published in leading medical Journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Circulation, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, as well as many others. He is an editorial board member of The Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and The Echocardiography Journal and reviewer for multiple general cardiology and cardiac imaging journals, including JACC and the AHA journals (Circulation and Circulation Imaging).

Dr. Abidov leads multiple funded clinical research projects targeting early diagnosis, screening and outcomes of cardiovascular disorders and effective utilization of advanced cardiovascular imaging. His areas of scientific interest include multimodality imaging of the right ventricle, imaging of ARVC and pulmonary hypertension, role of modern imaging applications in diagnosis and prognosis of cardiac disorders.

Dr. Abidov maintains a busy clinical practice seeing patients in all areas of general cardiology. He has trained multiple cardiology fellows and medical residents who have successfully passed their certification boards and currently practice all over the United States.

Dr. Oliva graduated from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil. She completed her internal medicine residency in the city of Recife and then moved to Sao Paulo, where she completed her Radiology residency. Dr. Oliva then moved to Boston and did 4 years of training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Harvard Medical School, including one year of fellowship in Cardiothoracic Imaging and another year in Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging. After her fellowship graduation, Dr. Oliva joined the Radiology department at Yale University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine in July 2015.. In February 2013, Dr. Oliva joined the Department of Medical Imaging at University of Arizona at the Assistant Professor level and as the chief of the Cardiothoracic Imaging Section. Dr. Oliva clinical interests include all diseases of the chest, cardiac and pulmonary. Her research is focused on Magnetic Resonance Imaging, specially developing new and improving existing techniques to increase sensitivity and specificity in diagnostic imaging.

Dr. Oliva’s research work is recognized worldwide and she has received several national and international awards including Certificate of Merit Awards in the RSNA Annual Scientific Meetings and a Bronze Medal at the ARRS Annual Scientific Meeting. Dr. Oliva has been a reviewer for several journals including Radiographics and Journal of Thoracic Imaging. She is also involved in several national committees including the ACR Appropriateness Criteria Vascular Panel. Dr. Oliva received several excellence in teaching awards from at Yale and University of Arizona. Dr. Oliva’s clinical and research work is recognized nationally and internationally; she has presented her work in meetings from several Societies including the Society of Thoracic Radiology (STR), North American Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), International Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ISMRM), Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), The Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), and International Society of Computerized Electrocardiology (ISCE).

Dr. Frank Marcus is Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, in Tucson, Arizona. His area of expertise is Clinical Cardiology, Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Clinical Electrophysiology. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine cum laude in 1953. He did his internship and residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston from 1953-1954 and 1956-1958. He was a research fellow in cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1957-1958 and then completed his cardiology training at Georgetown University Hospital in 1959. After a year as Chief Medical Resident at Georgetown University Hospital he was appointed Chief of Cardiology at the Georgetown University Medical Service, D.C. General Hospital. He held this position from 1960-1968. In January 1969, he became Professor and Chief of the Section of Cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. In 1982 he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Medicine and held this Endowed Chair until 1999. He is certified in the American Board of Internal Medicine and in the Subspecialty Board of Cardiovascular Disease.

Dr. Marcus was President of Association of the University Cardiologists from 1990-1991. Among his honors are the Laureate Award of the American College of Physicians in 1987, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Boston University School of Medicine in 2003; Master Clinician Award of the American Heart Association, Council on Clinical Cardiology in 2005; Outstanding Achievement Award of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society in 2011; and the Pioneer in Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology Award of the Heart Rhythm Society in 2011. He has been or is a member of the Editorial/Scientific Board of 14 Cardiovascular Journals and is a consultant and reviewer for 26 journals.

From 2001 to 2008 Dr. Marcus was the Principal Investigator of an NIH-sponsored study “The Multi-Disciplinary Study of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia”. He is now one of the Principal Investigators of an NIH sponsored study “Genetics, Mechanisms and Clinical Phenotypes of Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy”.

He is the author of 165 abstracts, 318 articles in peer reviewed journals and has written 66 book chapters. He is coeditor with Dr. Gaetano Thiene of a book on Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy published in 2007.