Dr. Sajith Matthews

An article published in the May issue of Echocardiography: A Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound and Allied Techniques could change the evaluation of patients with new onset heart failure.

Assistant Professor of Medicine Sajith Matthews, M.D., the article's first author, collaborated on a project conceived by Professor of Emergency Medicine Phillip Levy, M.D., M.P.H., to write "Three-dimensional echocardiography in acute heart failure: Can and should we do it in the emergency department?"

"It is shedding light on the possibilities that come from 3D echocardiography and potentially shifts us toward its use, over 2D echocardiography in certain acute settings," Dr. Matthews said. "It is a great diagnostic tool that can be helpful in acute settings to send patients for coronary angiograms or percutaneous coronary interventions."

Dr. Levy, assistant vice president of Translational Science and Clinical Research Innovation at Wayne State University's Integrative Biosciences Center, has mentored Dr. Matthews for the last four years.

John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center Chief of Cardiology Aiden Abidov, M.D., Ph.D., is the publication's senior author.

The team is researching 3D echocardiography in acute settings in the Cardiac Imaging Research Core, led by Dr. Abidov, at iBio. The publication results from a set of case studies exploring 3DEs. They are also looking at larger scale studies in which "we can look to implement 3DEs and its benefit in acute heart failure," Dr. Matthews said.

Dr. Matthews is an Internal Medicine specialist who completed residency training at the Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University. He sees patients at the Wayne State University Physician Group's General Medicine Ambulatory Practice Clinic in Detroit and the DMC's Detroit Receiving Hospital.