Maja Hrabak Paar is another NEWFELPRO researcher who successfully implemented her sixteen month long project titled projekt Cardiovascular remodeling in patients with arterial hypertension (CARAHY). During the outgoing phase of her project, dr. Hrabak Paar did her research at Universitätsspital Basel at the Department for radiology and nuclear medicine under the guidance of Professor Jens Bremerich. She concluded her research during her return phase at the University of Zagreb's School of Medicine.
The goal of her project was to assess changes of the heart and blood vessels in hypertensive patients with special emphasis on evaluation of gender differences, interdependence between cardiac and vascular remodeling, and their reversibility under therapy. Results obtained provide a path to therapeutic interventions that could reduce severe health consequences and socio-economic burden of hypertension.
Hence, the aim of her research is to develop and validate radiological tools that could help to identify individuals with higher risk for cardiovascular diseases. Those individuals would benefit the most from the primary prevention, including healthy lifestyle changes and drug treatment.
Throughout her project she held presentations of her project and results at the Swiss Congress of Radiology in Basel (June 2015) and at the annual scientific meeting of the European Society of Cardiac Radiology in Vienna (October 2015). In addition, she had a poster presentation at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (December 2015).
Dr. Hrabak Paar also participated in School of MRI: Advanced Cardiac MR Imagining organized by the European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology in Barcelona (2014). She also attended a Masterclass Cardiac MRI and a workshop titled Applied Statistics using R. Clinical Trial Unit in Basel (2015).
Based on the results of her research, she published following works:
Hrabak Paar M. Intense Adrenal Enhancement: A CT Feature of Cardiogenic Shock. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2016 Feb;39(2):296-8. doi: 10.1007/s00270-015-1142-z. Epub 2015 Jun 3.
M. Hrabak Paar, J. Bremerich, A. Redheuil, T. Heye. How variable is aortic strain measurement using magnetic resonance imaging? European Congress of Radiology ECR 2015, Vienna, Austria. DOI: 10.1594/ecr2015/C-1057
Hrabak Paar M., Bremerich J., Redheuil A., Heye T. Aortic strain measurement with MRI – Does intraobserver variability improve with training? Swiss Congress of Radiology 2015, Basel, Switzerland, Online Abstract Book: SS221
Hrabak Paar M., Kircher A., Al Sayari SY, Bremerich J, Redheuil A, Heye T. Vascular age assesment using MRI: Intra-, interobserver and inter-center variability of the aortic strain measurement in a multicenter trial setting. European Society of Cardiac Radiology (ESCR) Annual Meeting, Vienna, Abstracts of Oral Presentations – ESCR Papers. DOI: 10.3205/ESCR.2015.AOP:307.
Hrabak Paar M., Sicaja M. N., Mursic M., Rados M., Heye T., Bremerich J. MRI assessment of vascular age: Principles, techniques and applications. European Society of Cardiac Radiology – ESCR Papers. DOI: 10.1594/ecr2015/C-1057
Hrabak Paar M., Kircher A., Al Sayari SY,Kopp S., Santini F., Bremerich J., Heye T. MRI Pulse Wave Velocity Measurement for Vascular Age/aortic Stiffness Assessment: Intra-, interobserver and inter-center variability in a Multicenter Trial Setting. Radiological Society of North America 101st Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA: VII63-ED-X.
Hrabak Paar M., Kralik M. Diagnosis Please: Part 1. Radiology (in press)
Hrabak Paar M., Kralik M. Diagnosis Please: Part 2. Radiology (in press)
Upon finishing her project, dr. Hrabak Paar plans to continue her career at the School of Medicine in Zagreb as an Assistant Professor. Also, she plans to assemble the first interdisciplinary caridac imagining team at the University Hospital Center in Zagreb.
At the moment, she's in midst of initiating an establishment of Croatian Society of Cardiac radiology along with organizing a course „School of MRI: Advanced Cardiac MR Imagining“ in September 2016 which will be held by her NEWFELPRO project mentor, Professor Bremerich (on behalf of the European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology in Barcelona).
Congratulations!