Víctor G. Dávila-Román, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
and of Anesthesiology

Office location: 4104 Queeny Tower
Telephone: 314/362-1076
fax: 314/362-0314
e-mail address: vdavila@imgate.wustl.edu

Research interests
My research interests are in the use of noninvasive cardiovacular imaging techniques to evaluate heart function. Specifically, I have been studying diseases of the heart, such as left ventricular hypertrophy that develops from high blood pressure. In the early stages of this disease, the heart function is normal and the walls of the myocardium become thickened. In the late stages of the disease, the walls become thin, the heart dilates, and the contractile function decreases. The reasons for this decrease have not been established, but animal data suggest that alterations in myocardial blood flow lead to changes in metabolic substrate utilization (ie, glucose and fatty acids), and that these changes result in the heart becoming a less efficient pump. My research involves elucidation of some of the mechanisms that lead to this decompensated state in patients.

Clinical interests and responsibilities
I have attending responsibilities on both the echocardiography service (performing TTE, TEE, and stress echocardiograms), and on the medicine service.

Recent publications
Kovacs A, Burnham KM, Weinheimer CJ, Davila-Roman VG, Perez JE: Ultrasonic tissue characterization identifies early myocardial changes in a genetic animal model of hypertension and heart failure. Submitted for publication.

Lee HH, Davila-Roman VG, Walsh JF, Delano DA, Rubin PJ, Gropler RJ: The dependency of contractile reserve on myocardial blood flow: implications for the assessment of myocardial viability by dobutamine stress echocardiography. Circulation, in press.

Davila-Roman VG, Phillips KJ, Daily BB, Davila RM, Kouchoukos NT, Barzilai B: Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography and epiaortic ultrasound for assessment of atherosclerosis of the thoracic aorta. J Am Coll Cardiol 1996;28:942-947.

Feinberg MS, Gussak HM, Davila-Roman VG, Baumann CM, Miller JG, Perez JE: Dissociation between wall thickening of normal myocardium and cyclic variation of backscatter during inotropic stimulation. Am J Cardiol 1996;77:515-520.

Fontanet HL, Perez JE, Davila-Roman VG: Diminished contractile reserve in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy and increased end-systolic stress during Dobutamine stress echocardiography. Am J Cardiol 1996;78:1029-1035.

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