UCLA Radiological Science’s objectives to provide excellent patient care include not just diagnostic and interventional services, but also clinical and translational research to improve our understanding and awareness of disease. We congratulate Dr. Aichi Chien, an Associate Professor of Radiology who has recently been recognized as a Fellow of the American Heart Association by the American Heart/Stroke Association for her contributions to stroke research, education, and her effort to promote better treatment strategies for brain aneurysm disease. Brain aneurysms can cause one of the most devastating stroke events. Dr. Chien investigates aneurysms and identifies clinical and genomic risk factors to predict bleeding risk. Her work focuses aneurysm risk in various patient populations and analyzes the ways to best personalize treatment. To bring awareness of brain aneurysm disease, Dr. Chien has given lectures to different patient groups and research foundations.
Beginning this month, in a UCLA Radiology research initiative called Aneurysm Genetics, Dr. Aichi Chien, the principal investigator, has begun to connect genetic biomarkers with brain imaging for early diagnosis and improved treatment strategies in aneurysm. Said Dr. Chien, “We have successfully monitored many brain aneurysm patients over periods of years. With comprehensive screening methods, we want to enable early detection for brain aneurysms. Genetic analysis can be challenging, but the results can be very powerful to predict rupture and the risk of stroke. Our goal is to integrate clinical, imaging, and genomic features that can help us effectively and accurately find and manage silent aneurysms. Patients at high risk can often be managed by our experts in Interventional Neuroradiology using minimally invasive vascular approaches.”
