Dr. Kang Kim

Cardiovascular Institute & Bioengineering

Dr. Kim's Profile

Our research interests are focused on three areas from whole organ to molecular scale imaging of cardiac/cardiovascular system: (1) Ultrasound Elasticity Imaging (UEI) non-invasively assesses the global and regional mechanical property change of the organs in-vivo. UEI has been successfully validated in many cardiac/cardiovascular applications, including aging deep venous thrombosis and peripheral arterial diseases. With the recent development of 3 dimensional (3D) UEI based on phase-sensitive 3D speckle tracking, the application has been extended to full cardiac functional assessment such as left ventricle myocardial infarction and heart failure associated with pulmonary hypertension. (2) Thermal Strain Imaging (TSI) strongly contrasts the water-bearing and lipid-bearing tissues. The primary application of TSI in our lab is to detect the vulnerable plaques in major arteries. We already demonstrated the feasibility of high-resolution ultrasound induced TSI with a small temperature change ( less than 1oC) over a short time period (less than a cardiac cycle) using a commercial ultrasound scanner. (3) Photoacoustic Molecular Imaging (PMI) using bio-conjugated nanoparticles as labeled contrast agent has been developed in our lab. The performance of PMI has been evaluated in vitro and in vivo to target and identify inflammatory biomarkers for early detection of atherosclerosis and monitoring on-going inflammatory bioactivity in the plaques, which will provide a critical indication of the plaque vulnerability.