Cardiac OCT Research Laboratory

Overview

Researchers at Mass General led the first optical coherence tomography (OCT) registry, an international database of 3,000 patients who received OCT. OCT is an intravascular imaging technique that may help physicians identify patients who are at increased risk for future heart attacks or sudden cardiac death.

To build the MGH OCT registry, we partnered with prominent institutions internationally. Using information gathered from the registry, it is our goal to provide knowledge that will help doctors improve their understanding of coronary atherosclerosis.

Why OCT Imaging?

By creating extremely high-resolution images from within the artery, OCT can pinpoint the microscopic characteristics of plaque, as opposed to intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), which is more widely used, but has a lower resolution. Currently OCT is the only intravascular imaging technique with the resolution sufficient enough (approximately 10 µm) to delineate fine structures, such as thin fibrous caps and to characterize plaque types, such as lipid rich plaque. OCT can also detect subtle structural changes after PCI, such as plaque disruption including tissue prolapse and protrusion after stenting with high accuracy.

Mass General Pioneers the Use of OCT Imaging

The MGH Coronary OCT Research Laboratory is a pioneer in the use of optical coherence tomography to view coronary arteries at an unprecedented level. Over the past two decades, we have led the way in using this technology by:

• 1999: Establishing the MGH Coronary OCT Research Laboratory
• 2002: Publishing the first in man study using OCT
• 2005: Publishing the first study on in vivo characterization of plaques in patients with different clinical presentation
• 2010: Establishing the first international cardiac OCT registry by collaborating with researchers from Australia, Korea, Japan and China
• 2010: Hosting the first international OCT symposium that brought together the world's thought leaders in OCT imaging
• 2013: Demonstrating the feasibility of making an in vivo diagnosis of plaque erosion
• 2016: Publishing the EROSION Study, which may lead to a major shift in the management of patients with acute coronary syndromes
• 2016: Establishing a new OCT research network with investigators from the United States, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong Australia and India
• 2019: Proposing a new classification for calcified plaques in patients with acute coronary syndromes
• 2020: Collaborating on OCT studies enrolling subjects at sites in Japan including the collection of CTA (computed tomography angiography) images, and proteomic and microbiome samples
• 2021: Collaborating to develop deep learning models for OCT analysis

Publications

Dr. IK Jang’s laboratory has an extensive publication record which is available here.

Meet Our Team

The Mass General Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Registry is led by a team of world class researchers who have devoted their careers to pioneering OCT imaging. Meet the team behind the OCT registry, including:

Ik-Kyung Jang, MD, PhD

Ik-Kyung Jang, MD, PhD is the Allan and Gill Gray Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the MGH Coronary OCT Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Jang came to Massachusetts General Hospital in 1987 from Leuven University in Belgium, where he completed his residency in medicine and fellowship in cardiology. He also successfully defended his doctorate thesis at the same university. After his advanced fellowship in cardiology at Mass General, he joined the staff working as a physician and interventional cardiologist in the Cardiology Division. He continues to work as a cardiologist at MGH today.

His research interest has been acute coronary syndromes including acute myocardial infarction. His earlier research focused on pharmacology and physiology of thrombosis and thrombolysis including thrombin hypothesis and platelet inhibition. For the past twenty-four years he has pioneered the application of intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) in patients to better characterize coronary plaques and to understand the mechanisms of plaque rupture. Dr. Jang was the first to perform an intravascular OCT procedure in a patient. In addition, he was the principal investigator for multiple US multicenter OCT trials. Dr. Jang has been invited to give lectures at numerous national and international meetings and has an extensive publications list. He received national recognition as the 2022 recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award-Clinical Domain from the American College of Cardiology.

Hang Lee, PhD

Hang Lee, PhD, is the study statistician of the OCT Registry. Dr. Lee is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has experience in a wide range of collaborative research. At MGH, he is Associate Director for the Harvard Catalyst Biostatistics Program at Mass General and Associate Director of Collaborative Research and Consulting at the Mass General Biostatistics Center. He also serves as the statistical editor for the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE). His statistical expertise is in longitudinal data, statistical genetics, clinical trials design and complex data analysis, and he has authored and co-authored over 350 clinical study articles.

Iris A. McNulty, RN, Laboratory Manager

Iris McNulty received a BA in Anthropology from Brown University and a BSN from Simmons College. She worked at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1995-2013, with a focus on Cardiology from 2000-2013, and as a clinical research nurse 2003-2013. She has significant experience working on OCT clinical trials and worked with Dr. Jang during the inception of the MGH OCT Registry. In June of 2019 Iris returned to MGH to work with Dr. Jang as the MGH Coronary OCT Lab Manager.

Haruhito Yuki

Haruhito Yuki, MD, is a research fellow who came from New Tokyo Hospital (Japan). He graduated from medical school in 2015, completed his residency training program at New Tokyo Hospital, and was a junior fellow at Tsuchiura Kyodo General Hospital. His research interests include coronary imaging, vascular biology, and clinical outcomes.

Daisuke Kinoshita

Daisuke Kinoshita, MD, PhD, came from Kitasato University (Japan) to work with Dr. Jang. He received his MD in 2009 and PhD in cardiovascular medicine in 2017 from Yamagata University. He is currently working on plaque vulnerability and vascular inflammation.

Keishi Suzuki

Keishi Suzuki, MD, PhD, is a research fellow who came from Nippon Medical School (Japan). He received his MD in 2010 and was subsequently trained at the same institution and affiliated institutions in Cardiology. He also received a PhD in 2018 from Nippon Medical School. His focus is on diabetes mellitus and plaque vulnerability.

Takayuki Niida

Takayuki Niida, MD, PhD, graduated from Shinshu University (Japan) in 2012 and completed his residency training program at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital. In June 2022, after working at Tsuchiura Kyodo General Hospital and Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, he came to Massachusetts General Hospital to work with Dr. Jang. His focus is on proteomics in OCT-defined high-risk coronary plaques.

Daichi Fujimoto

Daichi Fujimoto, MD, PhD, came from Kobe, Japan. He graduated from Kobe University School of Medicine in 2013 and obtained his PhD from Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine in 2022. He worked as a cardiology physician in Japan while conducting research at Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital and Kobe University Hospital. He is currently focusing on calcification.

Marco Covani

Marco Covani, MD, is a Cardiology Resident from University Hospital of Parma (Italy). He graduated from University of Messina (Italy) in 2021. After that he moved to Parma to attend his Cardiology Residency where he is training as an Interventional Cardiologist and engaged in various research project. He joined Dr. Jang’s laboratory to conduct research focused on defining high-risk-plaque characteristics and plaque burden using multi-modality imaging techniques.

Former Fellows

• Lena Seegers (2021-2022) – Cardiology Fellow Goethe University of Frankfurt
• Akihiro Nakajima (2019-2022) – Cardiologist, New Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
• Makoto Araki (2019-2022) – Assistant Professor of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
• Hiroki Shinohara (2019) – Cardiologist, University of Tokyo
• Osamu Kurihara (2018 – 2020) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Nippon Medical School, Chiba, Japan
• Michele Russo (2018 – 2019) – Cardiology Fellow Catholic University, Italy
• Vikas Thondapu (2018 – 2019) – Cardiologist, USA
• Hyung Oh Kim (2018 – 2019) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Kyung Hee University, Korea
• Francesco Fracassi (2017 – 2018) – Cardiologist, Ravenna, Italy
• Tomoyo Sugiyama (2016 – 2018) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan,
• Erika Yamamoto (2015 – 2018) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Kyoto University, Japan
• Thomas Zanchin (2016 – 2017) – Fellow University of Bern, Switzerland
• Krzysztof Bryniarski (2016 – 2017) – Assistant Professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland
• Jiannan Dai (2016) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Harbin University, China
• Lei Xing (2015 – 2017) – Associate Professor of Medicine Harbin University, China
• Takumi Higuma (2015 – 2016) – Associate Professor of Medicine St. Marianna University, Japan
• Daniel Ong (2014 – 2015) – Cardiologist in Dallas, Texas
• Lei Gao (2014 – 2015) – Staff Cardiologist at 301 Hospital, China
• Kai-Hung Cheng (2014 – 2015) – Associate Professor of Medicine Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan
• Young-Seok Cho (2014) – Professor of Medicine Seoul National University, Korea
• Yoshiyasu Minami (2013 – 2016) – Associate Professor of Medicine Kitasato University, Japan
• Tsunenari Soeda (2013 – 2015) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Nara Medical University, Japan
• Rocco Vergallo (2012 – 2015) –Assistant Professor, Catholic University, Italy
• Haibo Jia (2012 – 2015) – Associate Professor of Medicine Harbin University, China
• Sining Hu (2012 – 2015) – Assistant Professor of Medicine Harbin University, China
• Jinwei Tian (2012 – 2014) – Associate Professor of Medicine Harbin University, China
• Farhad Abtahian (2012 – 2013) – Cardiologist in Rochester, New York
• Koji Kato (2011 – 2013) – Cardiologist in Tokyo, Japan
• Taishi Yonetsu (2011 – 2013) – Associate Professor of Medicine Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan
• Soo-Joong Kim (2011 – 2012) – Professor of Medicine Kyung Hee University, Korea
• Luca DiVito (2009 – 2011) – Cardiologist in Ascoli Piceno, Italy
• Joo Heung Yoon (2009 – 2011) – Assistant Professor of Medicine University of Pittsburgh
• Owen Christopher Raffel (2005 – 2008) – Assistant Professor of Medicine University of Queensland, Australia
• Masamichi Takano (2002 – 2005) – Associate Professor of Medicine Nippon Medical School, Japan
• Hiroshi Yabushita (2001 – 2002) – Cardiologist in Osaka, Japan