Consultant of Cardiothoracic Radiology
and Trainer of Cardiovascular Imaging
Adriana Villa
Dr Villa is our Consultant Lead for Cardiac Imaging, a field that has been her passion and interest for over 15 years.
She has a long family tradition in Radiology as her grandfather was a radiologist when X-rays where still “mysterious” and her father was one of the first radiologist to work on cardiac MRI in Italy. As a third-generation radiologist, she had the luck to train and work in large hospitals, where the concomitant exposure to clinical and research grounds helped her to have a wider view on the potential of this ever-growing technique.
Dr Adriana Villa trained as a Radiologist at San Matteo University Hospital in Pavia, one of the largest hospitals in Italy. Subsequently she moved to London where she obtained a master degree (MRes) in Imaging Sciences and a PhD on Stress Perfusion Cardiac MRI at King’s College London. Afterwards, Dr Villa was appointed as a Clinical Lecturer in Cardiovascular Imaging at King’s College London and Cardiovascular Radiologist Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. Her role included cardiovascular MRI and CT, with special interest in stress cardiac MRI scans (adenosine, regadenoson, high-dose and low-dose dobutamine scans) and focused protocols for patients with pulmonary hypertension. She has an extensive experience in clinical research and teaching and she still holds an honorary academic position with King’s College London. Dr Villa authored and co-authored original research papers, book chapters, case reports, review articles, and abstracts submissions; moreover, she collaborated in several research studies and multicentre trials, and contributed to quantitative research programme.
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Education / Academic Experience
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Training
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Her teaching experience includes
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Scientific Activity
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Membership & Distinctions
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Publications
- October 2014 – June 2017. PhD, King’s College London, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Rayne Institute, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London. Supervisors: Prof A Chiribiri, Prof R Razavi. Project “Advanced Quantification of Myocardial Perfusion by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance”.
- September 2012 – September 2013. Master of Research in Imaging Sciences (MRes), King’s College London, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Rayne Institute, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, Pass with Distinction.
- June 2009 – June 2014. Diploma of Radiology Specialization (Equivalent to CCT or FRCR), School of Radiology, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy. Grade: 50/50 cum laude (with Honours).
- October 2002 – July 2008. MBBS, Medical School of University of Pavia, Italy, Grade: 110/110 cum laude (with Honours)
- September 2018 – February 2022. Post-CCT Clinical Lecturer in Cardiovascular Imaging & Honorary Consultant in Radiology. Faculty of Life Science and Medicine, School of Biomedical Imaging and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
- July 2015 – August 2018. Honorary Consultant in Cardiovascular Imaging & Honorary Consultant Radiologist. King’s College London & Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London.
- August 2014 – August 2018. Post CCT Clinical Research Fellow. King’s College London, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Rayne Institute, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
- June 2009 – June 2014. Radiology Residency (Equivalent to SpR Training). School of Radiology, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia (Italy).
- Dr Villa is accredited for cardiac MRI (SCMR Accreditation in Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance) and cardiac CT (SCCT Accreditation in Cardiovascular CT).
- She also attended several courses, including the Advanced Life Support Provider Course (at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust), the Learning and Teaching Programme (at KCL London), the Leadership/Management course (KCL London), IRMER (Ionizing Radiation Medical Exposure Regulations), Teaching Induction Course (KCL London), HTA (Human Tissue Act & Consent – KCL London) and GCP (Good Clinical Practice).
- Course co-director Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Level 1 Course, St Thomas’ Hospital (from November 2020 - ongoing).
- Course co-director of KCL Stress Perfusion Course (from January 2021 – ongoing).
- Lecturer on the KCL Level 1 course (international course, running twice a year at KCL London).
- Lecturer for MRes students on the Cardiovascular Imaging Module.
- Responsible for organisation of an internal KCL Level II CMR course designed for CMR fellows.
- Facilitator for PhD student VIVA.
- Member of the TPC panel for several PhD student as expert.
- PhD Supervisor KCL Workshop.
- Interviewer for KCL Medical Students Admission Interviews.
- Examiner at the OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), MBBS programme, King’s College School of Medical Education.
- First supervisor of MRes student in Clinical Research and thesis marking.
- Exam marking and presentation assessment for MRes students. Exam marking at the intercalated BSc project at KCL London.
- Coordinator for the international meeting “Updates on prevention of sudden cardiac death in athletes” hosted by KCL in collaboration with Dr Angelini and Texas Heart Institute (April 2019).
- Her undergraduate teaching included supervision of Meng individual projects as supervisor, supervision of iBSc students’ projects and BSc teaching on cardiac MRI. Previously, she was also responsible for undergraduate students’ internship at the School of Radiology in Pavia, Italy.
- She has been member of several interview panels for CMR Clinical Fellows and CMR Radiographer Superintendent.
- Dr Villa has also been invited to talk at several international and national scientific meetings.
- Her research activities includes a sub-speciality interest in stress perfusion cardiac MRI and patients with pulmonary hypertension. Dr Villa developed two focused cardiac MRI protocols designed especially for patients with pulmonary hypertension and patients with COVID-19 infection causing cardiac and lung perfusion abnormalities.
- She collaborated in several research studies and multicenter trials, including COVID-HEART study, B-MORE (Breathing-Induced Myocardial Oxygenation Reserve), HCMR (Novel Predictors of Outcome in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy), REVIVED (Revascularisation for Ischaemic Ventricular Dysfunction), EnableMRI study (Expanding MRI Access for Patients with new and existing ICDs and CRT-Ds – Boston Scientific), “ESA SpaceSuit” Project in collaboration with European Space Agency (Axial loading as a countermeasure to microgravity-induced de-conditioning; effects on the spine and its associated structures), and “Twin brain study” in collaboration with the Department of Twin Research, Kings College London.
- Submission of research grants, including the awarded grants on “Detecting risks created during pregnancy: the placenta - heart axis” and “Calibrated multimodality quantitative myocardial perfusion analysis”.
- Coordination of MDT meetings, discrepancy meetings, audit of image and reporting quality,
- Author and co-author of original research papers, case reports, review articles and book chapters. Collaboration in the creation of teaching files for using the open-source program Osirix.
- Several abstracts (> 50) submitted to national and international scientific conferences.
- Dr Villa regularly peer review original research for internal journals, such as Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance JCMR (for which she received a Gold Star Reviewer Award in 2018), BUMC Proceedings, The Internal Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging (CAIM), PLOS ONE, BMJ Case Reports, TouchCardio Heart International and European Radiology. She has also been a mentor in peer review with Publons Academy
- General Medical Council (GMC), UK since October 2012
- Ordine dei Medici di Pavia, Italy, since 2009
- Dr Villa has been a member of EACVI (European Association of CardioVascular Imaging), SCCT (Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography), SCMR (Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance), RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) and SIRM (Italian Society of Radiologists - member of the cardiovascular imaging section and of the informatics section).
- Young Investigator Award, poster selected “Combined high-resolution stress perfusion and scar assessment in patients with ischaemic heart failure”, May 2018, BSCMR meeting 2018, Edinburgh, United Kingdom:
- Early Career Award, oral presentation selected “Combined high-resolution stress perfusion and scar assessment in patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy” and poster presentation “Importance of operator training and rest perfusion on the diagnostic accuracy of stress perfusion CMR”, January 2018, Joint EuroCMR/SCMR Meeting 2018, Barcelona, Spain.
- Second place in the SCMR Best Image Contest, February 2017, SCMR 20th Annual Scientific Sessions, February 2017, Washington.
- Several invited talks, including “Congenital coronary anomalies: optimal imaging of abnormal aortic origins” (EuroEcho Imaging Conference, Lisbon) and “Perfusion quantification” (CMR Meeting, Istituto Clinico Humanitas, Rozzano, Milan, Italy).
- Morgan H, Ryan M, Briceno N, Modi B, Rahman H, Arnold S, Villa A, Chiribiri A, Perera D. Coronary Jeopardy Score Predicts Ischaemic Aetiology in Patients with Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction. Journal of Invasive Cardiology, in print.
- McElroy S, Kunze KP, Nazir MS, Speier P, Stäb S, Villa ADM, Yazdani M, Verghani V, Roujol S, Neji R, Chiribiri A. Simultaneous Multi Slice Steady-State Free Precession Myocardial Perfusion with Iterative Reconstruction and Integrated Motion Compensation. European Journal of Radiology. 2022 June. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2022.110286.
- Lim RP, Scannell CM, Kachel S, Malandra A, Villa ADM, Kearney L, Bettencourt N, Young A, Chiribiri A. Cardisort: a cross vendor convolutional neural network for automated sorting of cardiac MRI images. European Radiology 2022 March. DOI: 10.1007/s00330-022-08724-4.
- McElroy S, Ferrazzi G, Nazir MS, Evans C, Ferreira J, Bosio F, Mughal N, Kunze K, Neji N, Speier P, Stäb D, Ismail T, Masci PG, Villa ADM, Razavi R, Chiribiri A, Roujol S. Simultaneous Multislice Steady-State Free Precession Myocardial Perfusion with full left ventricular coverage and high resolution at 1.5 T. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2022 Aug. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29229.
- Burnhope E, Polcaro A, Runge JH, Granlund I, Bosio F, Troelstra MA, Villa ADM, Chiribiri A, Carr-White G, Webb J, Razavi R, Martorell J, Sinkus R, Ismail T. Assessment of Myocardial Stiffness in Patients with Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: CMR Elastography Using Intrinsic Actuation. JACC imaging 2022 March. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2022.01.009.
- Nazir MS*, Shome J*, Villa ADM, Ryan M, Kassam Z, Razavi R, Kozerke S, Ismail TF, Perera D, Chiribiri A, Plein S. 2D high resolution versus 3D whole heart myocardial perfusion CMR. European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular imaging 2021 June. DOI: 10.1093/ehjci/jeab103.
- Scannell CM, Correia T, Villa ADM, Schneider R, Lee J, Breeuwer M, Chiribiri A, Henningsson M. Feasibility of free-breathing quantitative myocardial perfusion using multi-echo Dixon CMR. Scientific Report 2020 Jul. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69747-9.
- Angelini P, Muthupillai R, Lopez A, Cheong B, Uribe C, Hernandez E, Coulter S, Perin E, Molossi S, Gentile F, Flamm S, Lorenz G, D'Ascenzi Flavio, Tobis J, Sarnari R, Corno A, Furgerson J, Chiribiri A, Villa A, Orzan F, Brugada P, Jefferies J, Aubry P, Bichat-Claude B, Towbin J, Thiene G, Tomanek R. Young athletes: Preventing sudden death by adopting a modern screening approach? A critical review and the opening of a debate. IJC Heart & Vasculature. 2021 April. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2021.100790.
- Scannell CM, Chiribiri A, Villa ADM, Breeuwer M, Lee J. Hierarchical Bayesian myocardial perfusion quantification. Medical Image Analysis. 2020 Feb. DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2019.101611.
- Scannell CM, Veta M, Villa ADM, Sammut EC, Lee J, Breeuwer M, Chiribiri A. Deep-Learning-Based Pre-processing for Quantitative Myocardial Perfusion MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 2020 Jun. DOI: 10.1002/jmri.26983.
- Nazir MS, Ismail TF, Plein S, Chiribiri A, Villa ADM. Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations and embolic myocardial infarction identified with Cardiovascular magnetic resonance. European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging. June 2019. DOI: 10.1093/ehjci/jez169
- Scannell CM, Villa ADM, Lee J, Breeuwer M, Chiribiri A. Robust non-rigid motion compensation of free-breathing myocardial perfusion MRI data. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 2019 Feb. DOI: 10.1109/TMI.2019.2897044
- Backhaus SJ, Stiermaier T, Lange T, Chiribiri A, Uhlig J, Freund A, Kowallick JT, Gertz RJ, Bigalke B, Villa A, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G, Thiele H, Eitel I, Schuster A. Atrial mechanics and their prognostic impact in Takotsubo syndrome: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging study. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging 2019 Jan. DOI: 10.1093/ehjci/jey219.
- Villa ADM, Corsinovi L, Ntalas I, Milidonis X, Scannell CM, Di Giovine G, Child N, Ferreira C, Nazir MS, Karady J, Eshja E, De Francesco V, Bettencourt N, Schuster A, Ismail T, Razavi R, Chiribiri A. Importance of operator training and rest perfusion on the diagnostic accuracy of stress perfusion CMR. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 2018 November;20:74. DOI: 10.1186/s12968-018-0493-4.
- Gibb T, Villa ADM, Sammut E, Jeyabraba S, Carr-White G, Ismail TF, Mullen G, Ganeshan B, Chiribiri A. Quantitative assessment of myocardial scar heterogeneity using cardiovascular magnetic resonance texture analysis to risk stratify patients post-myocardial infarction. Clinical Radiology 2018 October. DOI: 10.1016/j.crad.2018.08.012.
- Stiermaier T, Lange T, Chiribiri A, Möller C, Graf T, Raaz U, Villa A, Kowallick JT, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G, Thiele H, Schuster A, Eitel I. Right Ventricular Strain Assessment by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Myocardial Feature Tracking Allows Optimized Risk Stratification in Takotsubo Syndrome. PLOS One 2018 August 29;12(8):e0202146. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202146.
- Stiermaier T, Lange T, Chiribiri A, Möller C, Graf T, Willnow C, Raaz U, Villa A, Kowallick JT, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G, Thiele H, Schuster A, Eitel I. Left ventricular myocardial deformation in Takotsubo syndrome: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance myocardial feature tracking study. Eur Radiol 2018 June. DOI: 10.1007/s00330-018-5475-2.
- Backhaus SJ, Stiermaier T, Lange T, Chiribiri A, Lamata P, Uhlig J, Kowallick J, Raaz U, Villa A, Lotz J, Hasenfuß G, Thiele H, Eitel I, Schuster A. Temporal changes within mechanical dyssynchrony and rotational mechanics in Takotsubo Syndrome: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging study. Int J Cardiol 2018 April. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2018.04.088.
- Villa ADM*, Sammut EC*, Di Giovine G, Dancy L, Bosio F, Gibbs T, Ieyabraba S, Schwenke S, Williams SE, Marber M, Alfakih K, Ismail TF, Razavi R, Chiribiri A. Prognostic Value of Quantitative Stress Perfusion Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging 2018;39:316-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2017.07.022.
- Villa ADM, Chiribiri A, “Coronary artery anatomy and anomalies” in Textbook of Catheter-Based Cardiovascular Interventions, Springer-Verlag, Berlin 2018, pp. 487-503.
- Webb J, Villa A, Bekri I, Shome J, Teall T, Claridge S, Jackson T, Porter B, Ismail TF, Di Giovine G, Rinaldi C, Carr-White G, Al-Fakih K, Razavi R, Chiribiri A. Usefulness of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging to measure wall thickness for determining risk scores for sudden cardiac death in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Am J Card 2017;119:1450-1455. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2017.01.021.
- Nordio G, Henningsson M, Chiribiri A, Villa ADM, Schneider T, Botnar M. 3D myocardial T1 mapping using saturation recovery. J Magn Reson Imaging 2017;46:218-227. DOI: 10.1002/jmri.25575.
- Villa ADM, Sammut E, Zarinabad N, Carr-White G, Lee J, Bettencourt N, Razavi R, Nagel E, Chiribiri A. Microvascular ischemia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: new insights from high-resolution combined quantification of perfusion and late gadolinium enhancement. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 2016;18:4. DOI: 10.1186/s12968-016-0223-8.
- Villa ADM, Sammut E, Nair A, Rajani R, Bonamini R, Chiribiri A. Coronary artery anomalies overview: The normal and the abnormal. World J Radiol 2016;8:537-55. DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i6.537
- Chiribiri A, Villa ADM, Sammut E, Breeuwer M, Nagel E. Perfusion dyssynchrony analysis. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging 2016;17:1414-1423. DOI: 10.1093/ehjci/jev326.
- Chiribiri A, Leuzzi S, Conte MR, Bongioanni S, Bratis K, Olivotti L, De Rosa C, Lardon E, Di Donna P, Villa ADM, Cesarani F, Nagel E, Gaita F, Bonamini R. Rest perfusion abnormalities in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: correlation with myocardial fibrosis and risk factors for sudden cardiac death. Clin Radiol 2015;70:495-501. DOI: 10.1016/j.crad.2014.12.018.
- Kowallick JT, Kutty S, Edelmann F, Chiribiri A, Villa A, Steinmetz M, Sohns JM, Staab W, Bettencourt N, Unterberg-Buchwald C, Hasenfuss G, Lotz J, Schuster A. Quantification of left atrial strain and strain rate using Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance myocardial feature tracking: a feasibility study. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 2014;16:60. DOI: 10.1186/s12968-014-0060-6.
- Villa A, Eshja E, Dallavalle S, Bassi E, Turco A. Cardiac metastases of melanoma as first manifestation of pathology. J Radiol Case Rep 2014;8:8-15.
- Meola M, Petrucci I, Giovannini L, Colombini E, Villa A. Ultrasound and color Doppler imaging for kidney and urinary tract tumors. G Ital Nefrol 2012;29:452-66.
- Dellafiore C, Villa A, Zibera F. Sjiogren syndrome: a case report. J of Ultrasound 2012;15:108-10.
- Valentino M, Quiligotti C, Villa A, Dellafiore C. Thyroglossal duct cysts: Two cases. J of Ultrasound 2012;15:182-5.
- Collaboration to the book of Di Guglielmo L, Calliada F, Cornalba P, Dore R. Case Editor for Diagnostica per immagini per studenti di medicina (Imaging for Medical Students). Minerva Medica, Turin, 2012.
