Dr Tawakol graduated from Stanford Medical School and did his Medical Residency and Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He subsequently completed training in Nuclear Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, after which he joined the Cardiology Division staff. His clinical focus is in nuclear cardiology and general cardiology, with a special focus on the identification of patients at highest risk for atherothrombotic event.
Dr Tawakol's research interest is in imaging of atherosclerosis. His work has focused on developing novel diagnostic approaches and novel treatment strategies for atherosclerosis. To that end, Dr Tawakol has developed and validated molecular methods to characterize atherosclerotic plaques, and has made seminal observations validating the use of FDG-PET imaging for the measurement of atherosclerotic plaque inflammation. Currently, he is leading several multi-center trials to evaluate interventions targeting plaque inflammation and is evaluating the potential clinical role of vascular PET imaging for improving the identification of patients at highest risk for atherothrombotic events.
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Mass General Heart Center
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 866-644-8910
Medical Education
American Board Certifications
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Multi-modality Imaging of Atherosclerotic Plaques
The majority of myocardial infarctions and sudden cardiac death result from the rupture of plaques which, in most cases, did not cause significant flow limitation prior to the acute event. While stenosis severity (measured with techniques such as angiography and stress testing), is the gold standard for characterization of atherosclerotic disease, it has proven a poor predictor of therapeutic efficacy and a coarse predictor of risk. Novel methods for the characterization of plaques are needed. Accordingly, the focus of Dr Tawako?s laboratory is to develop, validate, and apply novel imaging methods to non-invasively characterize atherosclerotic plaques, with a focus on plaque inflammation.
To that end, Dr Tawakol's group has developed and validated methods using positron emission tomography that enables the non-invasive measurement of plaque inflammation in patients. Currently, Dr Tawakol leads several multi-center trials that are evaluating the efficacy of novel drugs for reducing plaque inflammation.
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