Spotlight Archive
Name: Leslie Ynalvez, MD
Where Are You From? Baton Rouge, LA
How did you get into Cardiology? My role models in medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch instilled in me how amazing the heart works. Then during my residency at Baylor College of Medicine, the practice showed me how many ways you can care for your patients: from exercise and therapeutic drugs – with so many up-and-coming trials at the time especially in the HFrEF arena – to the application of physics and engineering (EP, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, mechanical circulatory support devices, and hemodynamics) and transplantation.
What are your current research interests and projects? My interest in looking at peripartum heart failure with preserved ejection fraction really stemmed from my mentor, Dr. Pansy Tung. While most prior studies have evaluated systolic heart failure, there is emerging data that diastolic heart failure is an important clinical entity, especially in pregnant women with certain cardiovascular comorbidities. We sought to elucidate if echocardiographic parameters of diastolic dysfunction are more prevalent in those with cardiometabolic risk factors during pregnancy.
This project is also meaningful in a personal level as it defined mentorship for me – thanks to Dr. Tung. On my end, I witnessed AK and Atia (who were my research residents at the time we were pulling late nights to complete our raw database) become cardiology fellows!
Where Are You From? Baton Rouge, LA
How did you get into Cardiology? My role models in medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch instilled in me how amazing the heart works. Then during my residency at Baylor College of Medicine, the practice showed me how many ways you can care for your patients: from exercise and therapeutic drugs – with so many up-and-coming trials at the time especially in the HFrEF arena – to the application of physics and engineering (EP, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, mechanical circulatory support devices, and hemodynamics) and transplantation.
What are your current research interests and projects? My interest in looking at peripartum heart failure with preserved ejection fraction really stemmed from my mentor, Dr. Pansy Tung. While most prior studies have evaluated systolic heart failure, there is emerging data that diastolic heart failure is an important clinical entity, especially in pregnant women with certain cardiovascular comorbidities. We sought to elucidate if echocardiographic parameters of diastolic dysfunction are more prevalent in those with cardiometabolic risk factors during pregnancy.
This project is also meaningful in a personal level as it defined mentorship for me – thanks to Dr. Tung. On my end, I witnessed AK and Atia (who were my research residents at the time we were pulling late nights to complete our raw database) become cardiology fellows!