Franz Gerald Greil MD, PhD

Dr. Gerald Greil studied medicine in Regensburg, Munich, Germany, at Oxford in London, UK, in Boston and San Francisco, and in Sweden (Lund). He got his degree in Pediatrics, Pediatric Intensive Care, Neonatology and Pediatric Cardiology from the University of Tüebingen, Germany and did a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Cardiac MRI at Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston. Since November 2006 Dr. Greil has been a Consultant at Evelina Children’s Hospital (Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust) in London, UK and Clinical Lead of the Congenital Cardiac MRI Imaging Service. He was affiliated with King’s College London, where he was working as a clinical academic.

Part of his research is diagnostic and interventional cardiac MRI in patients with acquired and congenital heart disease using XMR systems. In this setting, 3D datasets (echocardiography, MRI or MDCT) are used for image fusion for diagnostic, electrophysiology and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures. Also invasive pressure data and non-invasive imaging data are combined for precise assessment of the cardiovascular system. For assessment of ventricular function, Dr. Greil also used reduced data acquisition methods (e.g. kt-BLAST). Dr. Greil focuses on vascular imaging of the lumen and vessel wall including the coronary arteries using new contrast agents, 32 channel coil technology and high field MRI technology. He is implementing these basic science developments into clinical practice, for example, in patients with Kawasaki disease. Currently there is a close cooperation with Great Ormond Street Hospital London to evaluate novel imaging technologies for non-invasive assessment of the cardiovascular system including imaging of the coronary artery lumen and vessel wall for improved follow-up of patients after heart transplantation.

In collaboration with other institutions (DKFZ Heidelberg, Germany and the Cardiac Registry, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA) Dr. Greil used high resolution 3D images of the heart and great vessels including multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) datasets for 3D virtual and real stereolithographic reconstructions of rare congenital heart defects for teaching, clinical use and research. These datasets were implemented in novel techniques such as virtual surgery. MDCT has been investigated for special indications (e.g. pulmonary vascular blood supply in patients with pulmonary atresia) as part of Dr. Greil’s research. Currently Dr. Greil is investigating with MRI cardiovascular morphology and function as well as the water-fat distribution within the human body in twins in cooperation with the Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology Department, King's College London, to assess the influence of environmental and genetic risk factors of cardiovascular disease.