Exercise Intolerance in Pulmonary Hypertension and Heart Failure
Farhan Raza, MD, is a cardiologist with expertise in pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and transplant, and invasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
His research focuses on mechanisms of exercise intolerance in pulmonary hypertension and heart failure, and he utilizes bioengineering methods to develop targeted therapies.
Invasive Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Laboratory
Conventional methods of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure management involve echocardiogram and invasive testing at rest to acquire basic clinical information. These methods are employed to attempt to treat complex mixture of pathologies in patients with heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.
Dr. Raza and the team commonly employ exercise testing in clinical care and research to identify mechanisms of exercise intolerance. These combined methods of cardiopulmonary exercise test and invasive hemodynamics provide in-depth view of causes of dyspnea in an individual patient and targeted interventions.
His research team is developing bioengineering methods of exercise pulmonary impedance test, cardiac MRI with 4D flow-based methods and myocardial stiffness to determine mechanisms of right ventricular failure. For early detection of right ventricular failure, his team employs right ventricular pressure-volume loop with exercise to assess RV:PA uncoupling with exercise. These methods will identify actionable mechanisms to improve exercise capacity and quality of life in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension patients.
If you are interested in joining our team, please send your CV and a brief description of your research experience and interests to Dr. Raza.
Research Program Alumni
- Callyn Kozitza, MS, graduate student, biomedical engineering
- Jonathan Le, medical student
- Scott A. Laurenzo, MD, internal medicine resident
- Ali Azeem, MD, cardiovascular disease fellow
- Mohamad Merchant, MD, cardiovascular disease fellow
Active Projects
- AIC: Augmented Invasive Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test
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The AIC study involves exercise invasive CPET with echocardiogram Doppler acquisition for pulmonary impedance testing with exercise to comprehensively assess pulmonary afterload. This is followed by exercise right ventricular pressure volume loops for exercise RV:PA coupling analysis. Subsequently, cardiac MRI with 4D flow at rest and with exercise is performed for ventricular interactions. This study aims to identify afterload-sensitive phenotypes of PH-HFpEF, which can be leveraged towards targeted therapies.
- TITIN: Myocardial Fibrosis in HFpEF
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TITIN study aims to quantify myocardial fibrosis with cardiac MRI with ECV quantification in HFpEF. Subsequently, myocardial biopsy is performed for quantifying fibrosis. Additional analysis of myocardial biopsy is performed for titin isoform switching and RBM20 expression and phosphorylation level in myocardial tissue.
Funding Support
Dr. Raza’s research is funded by an American Heart Association career development award and the University of Wisconsin ICTR KL2 Scholars Program.
