Keiichiro Yoshinaga, MD, PhD, FACC, FASNC
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On October 7, 2020, Dr Keiichiro Yoshinaga passed away due to advanced gastric cancer. His contributions to nuclear cardiology and cardiac PET have been significant. His creative inspiration and active spirit will be missed tremendously.
J Nucl Cardiol 1071-3581/$34.00 Copyright Ó 2020 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. doi:10.1007/s12350-020-02432-6
He graduated from Kagoshima University Medical School in 1992 and continued his training as a cardiologist, where he was stimulated by nuclear cardiology. Due to his strong desire to learn more in this field, he joined our Nuclear Medicine Department at Hokkaido University as a clinical fellow in 1999. At that time, we had just started our PET and in-house cyclotron project. He became involved in key projects in quantitative assessment of myocardial blood flow and flow reserve with several young nuclear medicine and cardiology scientists. He actively contributed to the scientific and medical community through several high-impact papers. In addition, he attended international scientific meetings to report and discuss with many scientists at these meetings. In order to further develop his research expertise, he joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) as a research fellow in 2003 and stayed there for two and half years. Keiichiro was a highly motivated clinicianscientist who exceled by his determination, resilience, intellect, and kind personality. He led several research projects that he went on to publish in JNC and other leading journals including among the first studies to demonstrate the prognostic value of PET perfusion imaging (JACC 2006) and also the beneficial impact of CPAP therapy in heart failure on cardiac energetics (JACC 2007). He helped in establishing the Molecular Function and Imaging Program at UOHI, setting up regular seminars for the program. Indeed, this was a pivotal time and turning point in Ottawa, whereby Keiichiro was instrumental for UOHI to obtain a large program grant from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (Canada) that helped UOHI significantly enhance its imaging research program. This is amazing in itself, but even more so when one considers that he was half a world away from home on a new continent with a foreign language and different culture. Not only did he learn English, he embraced Ottawa, learning its restaurants and cultural attractions. While there, he worked and befriended many known clinicians and scientists. He fostered lifelong collaborations and personal friendships which he commemorated each year with hand-written letters on traditional Japanese art cards.
Tamaki et al Keiichiro Yoshinaga, MD, PhD, FACC, FASNC
After returning to Japan in 2006, he continued to publish important papers in the field of nuclear cardiology and cardiac PET. His major papers dealing with PET measurements of alteration in myocardial flow reserve, endothelial function, myocardial oxygen extraction, and consumption have had major impact in the field of Nuclear Cardiac imaging and are often cited. In order to promote q
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